Small Talk: The Library

[buffyjunkie]

I won't know if mine has been received until I return home from work in February. 

ETA: Mr. Buffyjunkie reports mine arrived in the mail!

Edited January 15, 2017 by buffyjunkie
Secret Santa receipt

[trudi-tru]

I received mine but my recipient hasn't. It's been 3 weeks since I shipped it so it should arrive soon. I hope.

[romantic idiot]

My gift is late because I suck and didn't give a good enough address. 

[Harvester]

My recipient has not reported receiving a gift.

trudi, how is life between earthquakes?

[trudi-tru]

Well, on Wednesday we had three big (for our standards) ones in the span of an hour. Not fun.

The worst part though is that one caused a big avalanche that buried an entire hotel. It took a lot of time for rescuers to get there because of the snow and I don't think they will find anyone alive at this point. Whoever survived the crash has probably frozen to death by now. Horrible. Just horrible.

[buffyjunkie]

Oh God, how horrifying. 

[Willowy]

Just ran across an update on that avalanche; apparently they've pulled 10 survivors from the rubble and snow. Doesn't lessen the horrible but at least there's some good news.

[trudi-tru]

Yes, all the children have been rescued and are in good shape. They were all playing together in the same room. 

[trudi-tru]

How are you guys holding up amidst all the insanity?

I have to say, I knew it was not going to be good, but I didn't expect things to get this bad so fast.

[buffyjunkie]

Aside from wondering if I am insane or possibly don't really exist (am I really living in The Matrix or any other if a half dozen or more dystopian novels?) I'm hanging in there. I've had to get through three family members with health issues all at the same time and some icky work stuff. But I'm still standing and kind of wondering how this will all play out.  The mood goes from nihilistic (so Trump nukes us all - maybe we deserve it) to damn, maybe some real change can occur if we keep calling people out on tbeir crap, ultimately making life safer for women, minorities etc

[Harvester]

Each day brings new horrors. This is utterly surreal.

Fortunately, I live in a liberal city and work for an employer that values diversity. Those two things give me hope, and the resistance has been very inspiring.

[Chyna]

20 hours ago, Harvester said:

Each day brings new horrors. This is utterly surreal.

Fortunately, I live in a liberal city and work for an employer that values diversity. Those two things give me hope, and the resistance has been very inspiring.

That's pretty much where I stand too. And trying really hard not to fall too far into despair.

[Erratic]

Guys, vibes to you all. This horror is awful, but I am inspired by people standing up to bullshit and hatred. 

[trudi-tru]

I'm hugging each one of you. Except Erratic, she's happy in canada, she don't need me.

[Barphe]

Erratic probably needs a hug, too. After all, our neighbor to the North has to be pretty stressed out over the insane shenanigans going on over here. 

[Loandbehold]

I believe Canada's just as upset that they're not going to get a big, beautiful wall built on their border.

[formerlyfreedom]

The site rule at Previously.TV is "No politics that does not directly apply to a show, including in Small Talk Discussions. Period." The private message system does allow Group PMs.

Failure to follow this guideline will result in warnings.

[Willowy]

Look what just happened on my twitter feed, haha! 

[Halting Hex]

1 hour ago, Joe Hellandback said:

This is soap world, Lucy Ewing and Ray Krebbs can have an affair in early seasons and when it's revealed he's Jock's long lost son no one thinks to mention it.

[OT] The "best" version of this was during the 3-part Dynasty premiere, where Fallon is clearly fucking Cecil Colby (along with half of the Denver Broncos) before he wifes her off to Jeff to make an official merger with Blake, and then in Season 2 when Alexis is trying to get back at Blake by claiming that Fallon is actually her and Cecil's daughter, Fallon is all "OMG, we almost had sex!"  C'mon, girl, there wasn't no "almost" about it. [/OT]

1 hour ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Yeah [spoliered ep is] weak although taken with the second part it's much better. 

Yeah, it's better as part of a whole.  BtVS was never too great with the Part 1's, Grad Day 1 and This Year's Girl aside. (Becoming 1 is a fine ep, but part 2 is clearly a step up, IMO.)

[Joe Hellandback]

10 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

[OT] The "best" version of this was during the 3-part Dynasty premiere, where Fallon is clearly fucking Cecil Colby (along with half of the Denver Broncos) before he wifes her off to Jeff to make an official merger with Blake, and then in Season 2 when Alexis is trying to get back at Blake by claiming that Fallon is actually her and Cecil's daughter, Fallon is all "OMG, we almost had sex!"  C'mon, girl, there wasn't no "almost" about it. [/OT]

Yeah, it's better as part of a whole.  BtVS was never too great with the Part 1's, Grad Day 1 and This Year's Girl aside. (Becoming 1 is a fine ep, but part 2 is clearly a step up, IMO.)

Big time crush on Emma Samms, she was hot. 

[Halting Hex]

1 hour ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Big time crush on Emma Samms, she was hot. 

[Still OT] Yes, Emma was hot (when Genie Francis quit General Hospital to do the miniseries where she met her husband, Jonathan "Commander Riker" Frakes, GH was so desperate to fill the gap that they threw both a young Demi Moore and a young Janine Turner at Tony Geary, but it was Emma, brought on for a secondary role, who pushed her way to the front), no doubt about that.  

However, in this particular case, I was referring to the OG Fallon [pre-alien], played by Pamela Sue "Nancy Drew" Anderson. [/Still OT]

[Joe Hellandback]

12 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

[Still OT] Yes, Emma was hot (when Genie Francis quit General Hospital to do the miniseries where she met her husband, Jonathan "Commander Riker" Frakes, GH was so desperate to fill the gap that they threw both a young Demi Moore and a young Janine Turner at Tony Geary, but it was Emma, brought on for a secondary role, who pushed her way to the front), no doubt about that.  

However, in this particular case, I was referring to the OG Fallon [pre-alien], played by Pamela Sue "Nancy Drew" Anderson. [/Still OT]

Ah, Janine Turner, one of only three women I've had a sexual dream about. One of the few women to look better with short hair (see also Erika Eleniak, Halle Berry, Denise Crosby and Carey Lowell). I was a big fan of Remington Steele and was disappointed when we lost Murphy  (James Read) to North and South as well (but he turns up in Charmed as the girl's dad). I remember Nancy Drew, the opening titles with the moonlit maze were especially striking but she rapidly got forced out by the appeal of the Hardy boys (the ghost episode scared the hell out of me as a kid, Dracula, not so much).

[Halting Hex]

21 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

I was a big fan of Remington Steele and was disappointed when we lost Murphy  (James Read) to North and South as well

Was that what that was about?? I only saw RS in reruns, and didn't realize how the chronology fit in.  Not only do I like the idea of Steele as more of a front man than a savant, but I'm a huge James Read fan; I love his Columbo episode ("Uneasy Lies the Crown", with Read as a murderous dentist), and in Eight Men Out he does one of my favorite things…running through a series of emotions without saying a word.  I've written about how Alyson Hannigan shows Willow doing four successive emotions in reaction to "There is no spell" in Faith, Hope & Trick; Read, as Claude "Lefty" Williams does at least that many when the gangsters tell him he's going to lose the final World Series game on purpose while his wife (Nancy Travis, overdoing the southern accent) is obliviously chattering away in the background. A very underrated actor, IMO.

The Hardy Boys met Dracula?  LMAO, join the club, kids.  I suppose the sort of folks who ship Buffy/Dean Winchester would be 'shipping Buffy/Frank, then.  (Joe's too pretty for her, and besides, Frank's the alpha.)

[illdoc]

3 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Pamela Sue "Nancy Drew" Anderson

Wasn't her last name "Martin"?

[Halting Hex]

2 hours ago, illdoc said:

Wasn't her last name "Martin"?

Indeed it was; I've cross-bred her with Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House on the Prairie, it appears.  I blame Hank Summers.  (Dean Butler played Almanzo Wilder on that latter series.)

[Joe Hellandback]

15 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Indeed it was; I've cross-bred her with Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House on the Prairie, it appears.  I blame Hank Summers.  (Dean Butler played Almanzo Wilder on that latter series.)

Great, never knew that, that makes LHOTP to Buffy in one. As for the rest;

RS; guest starred Armin Shimmerman and Kristine Sutherland so in 1

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew; Parker Posey was in Baywatch with Charisma Carpenter so in 2. 

Dynasty; Heather Locklear was in Scrubs with Ken Lerner so in 2.

Interesting to compare the Supernatural boys with the Hardy's but their car is much more badass than the Hardy's rather gaudy van.  

[Halting Hex]

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Parker Posey was in Baywatch

Parker Stevenson surely.  Parker Posey is rather different, being woman-shaped for one thing.

(And I'm redeemed, lol!)

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎13‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 8:52 PM, Halting Hex said:

Parker Stevenson surely.  Parker Posey is rather different, being woman-shaped for one thing.

(And I'm redeemed, lol!)

Oops! Hangs head in shame! Is this the time to confess that I used to think Heather Thomas and Heather Locklear were the same person? Until they appeared on The Fall Guy together 

[Joe Hellandback]

14 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

This one of my favorite episodes of television of all time. I think it gets overlooked a bit because most season finales tend to be huge sweeping epics that cover two or three episodes, and this one very efficiently wraps everything up in 45 minutes. However, just think about everything the episode accomplishes in those 45 minutes.

1. The pacing! Good lord, how did they fit so many iconic scenes into a single episode without it feeling rushed? We start out with ordinary, day-to-day teen angst - Xander trying to ask Buffy out, and Buffy rejecting him - and it's genuinely moving. We have time to feel for both Buffy and Xander. And then there's the prophecy, and we watch as Buffy absorbs the news, as she breaks down, as she tries to run away - and then as she gradually comes to accept that this is what she has to do. And the show makes all this character growth convincing, so that when Buffy goes off to meet the Master at the end, we know that she understands exactly what she's doing. We know how much this decision is costing her, and we know why she makes it.

2. This is related to my first point, but this is also the episode where every single major character comes into their own. Giles steps into the father figure role for good, refusing to let Buffy confront the Master and insisting on doing it himself. Xander and Angel put aside their mutual dislike and join forces to help Buffy - Xander going to Angel for help, Angel asking Xander to step in when Buffy needs mouth-to-mouth. Willow manages to get across to Buffy what it will be like if the Master wins, with her speech about the murder at the school. Buffy's mom tries so hard to help - the dress is a lovely effort - but is so heartbreakingly incapable of understanding what's going on. And Cordelia, of course, reveals her true colors as a badass who's willing to drive a car into the school if she has to. By the end of this episode, we know every character ten times better than we did at the beginning. And I think it's because - and this is unusual for the season finale of this kind of show - there's far more focus on character development than on action. The episode isn't really about Buffy's fight with the Master, which takes up very little time. It's about Buffy reaching the point where she is willing to fight the Master, knowing that she will die.

And finally, Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting is brilliant here. She and Anthony Stewart Head are so good in the scene where Buffy learns about the prophecy - it's genuinely heartbreaking when Buffy says, "Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't want to die."

So yeah, this may not be the Buffy episode that's usually ranked the highest, but it's up there with "Crosetti" from Homicide, Life on the Street and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" from The X-Files on my personal list of Best Episodes of TV Ever.

I think most would agree that this is the best ep of season 1 especially the Buffy/Joyce and Buffy/Giles scenes, it's like all the best elements of the series really start coming together in this ep. Personally Je Souhaite is my favourite ep of the X-files but what was 'Crosetti'? My favourite HLOTS ep is where Munch investigates the murder or his childhood crush. 

[Halting Hex]

Favorite Homicide episode?  I don't know, probably "The Subway", just for the overall futility of it. (I don't know the actual title, sorry, but I'm sure you can figure it out.)  "Three Men and Adina" is probably just a little bit better, because Moses Gunn rules.  But D'Onofrio is such a heart-tugger in the later ep.

I even like "Kellerman Mopes on His Boat" (again, not the real title), just a little bit.  I realize it's a very silly tongue-bath (since when did this become The Reed Diamond Hour, after all?), but I just went with it.

Spoiler

One of my more unconventional opinions is that the BtVS finales can be ranked 1-7 in quality, exactly the same way they happened chronologically.  But that's probably for a more general topic than this episode's thread, hence the spoiler bar.

[Joe Hellandback]

1 hour ago, Halting Hex said:

Favorite Homicide episode?  I don't know, probably "The Subway", just for the overall futility of it. (I don't know the actual title, sorry, but I'm sure you can figure it out.)  "Three Men and Adina" is probably just a little bit better, because Moses Gunn rules.  But D'Onofrio is such a heart-tugger in the later ep.

I even like "Kellerman Mopes on His Boat" (again, not the real title), just a little bit.  I realize it's a very silly tongue-bath (since when did this become The Reed Diamond Hour, after all?), but I just went with it.

  Hide contents

One of my more unconventional opinions is that the BtVS finales can be ranked 1-7 in quality, exactly the same way they happened chronologically.  But that's probably for a more general topic than this episode's thread, hence the spoiler bar.

Yeah, that was a surreal one, the way they miss his girlfriend at the end by a whisker. 'The men and Adina', is that the one where they interview the suspect in the girl's killing and he shows them the picture of him with the corpses?

[Halting Hex]

So…my stuff finally showed up at my new house.  (Not newly-built, but newly-owned by me; the first time I've moved out of the renter class.)  Thus concluding my cross-country move.

JFC, I've got a lot of stuff.  Nothing like "looking forward to" opening 100 or so boxes.

(And of course they managed to lose the legs for the TV, so now it's just propped up against a bookcase.  This never happened before I moved to flat-screens, obviously.  The good news is that DirecTV says the installer [due on Sunday] can do something to take care of this.  Apparently they have mounting kits. Maybe I'll even put it on the wall, now that I'm no longer in California.  Still scared to just imagine it crashing to the floor and taking half my wall with it, though.)

[Halting Hex]

And so 2018 departs the (sort of) great state of South Carolina, home of low property values and thus easily-purchased houses.  No more rent checks, which is hopefully a permanent change, and I managed to squeeze in an insanely-timed "if I'm ever going to go to Hawai'i, it's probably best to do it before the airfare is twice as expensive, what with leaving the East Coast and all" three-day flier to the islands, at that.  So home ownership, parasailing, and another of the 50 states off of the bucket list, all because I liked my trip to SC to see the eclipse in 2017.  As my years go, not bad.

(Plus, I get rain quite regularly now.  Pfft to California and its deserts, I like rain!  It's like coming home.)

As far as this forum goes, many thanks to Joe for getting me worn down on the subject of video reactors.  Sure, it seems somewhat loopy to be following as many as I currently am, but it's quite interesting to see the episodes through new eyes after all this time.

Regrets?  No NYC/Broadway/baseball/concert trips this year; I'll have to make up for it in 2019.  Onward!  (Back to SummerFest this year?  Maybe…)

Wishing all of you all the best.

[Halting Hex]

(Warning:  ranting follows.  You were warned.)

Sooooooo…remember how I said liked the rain?  Well, part of that was because I could look out the front windows at the woods across the street, my house being the last one on its block (which ends in a "T") and only the one neighbor to my right, nice and woodsy and natural, everywhere else.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep," to misquote Robert Frost.  Yeah, well, guess what they are now?  Fucking EXTINCT, that's what they are!.  

I'm sitting around yesterday morning (still annoyed about the Super Bowl and trying to resolve an issue with my pharmacist) and suddenly I hear the sounds of "progress".  Yep, a variety of large yellow vehicles are clear-cutting my former patch of paradise.  Some developer bought up all the vacant lots around here and is going to build on all of them.  (The greedy bastard.)  Bye-bye, trees and birds…hello, a nice new view of the back of the house on the next street.  That is, until my new neighbor gets their house built right across from me, in between the two of us.

I mean, for FOURTY-EIGHT years, this house has been nice and quiet and semi-isolated.  I buy the place, and less than five months later, fucking Levittown is springing up all around me.  FML!

(I've been in touch about buying the lot to the left of me, so I can keep that wooded and not have a neighbor looking into my bedroom or the new "shower room" I converted that spare bedroom into.  [I've never been a fan of shower/tub combos, so I put a big tub in the bathroom, and a stand-up shower on the other side of that wall.]  I thought we were making progress yesterday, but I can't get him or my realtor on the phone today.  And if they start cutting on my side of the street, then I'm as fucked as anything. I know it's money I hadn't planned on spending, but land is a good investment, so they say.  If only I get to spend it.)

Yes, yes, the new builds will probably drive up property values in the neighborhood, so in theory I'm making money.  There's even the argument that I'm "lucky" to have bought this place cheaply and so soon will benefit from the building boom.  But I don't want to sell (I thought this was a long-term situation…like decades' worth…), and where would I go with my "profit" if I did, and I'm too young to get a reverse mortgage, and in the meantime all the increased valuation will probably mean is that I'll have to pay higher property taxes.  FFS.

I mean, the universe couldn't have given me like five years to settle in here before throwing this spanner in my life?  I haven't even unpacked here yet.  Which is on me, but still.

Well, writing this has taken long enough that the lot owner has texted me to say that he's on the road but he'll call when he reaches his hotel.  So I guess that's good.  And it's after 5.00, so the timber crew has knocked off for the day.  (Oh, boy is that noise not pleasant.  And even if I save my neighboring lot, I still have months and months of hammering/sawing/etc. to look forward to.  Oh, joy.)   But I still hate all of this.

Oh, and that "issue" I was having with my pharmacist is about getting my California prescription transferred to South Carolina before I run out of pills.  (Not only am I stuck in the bureaucracy, but when I got an emergency "tide-me-over" scrip written at the local ER, they "ER-red" and wrote it for one pill per day, when I take three.  Yes, I should have caught it, but I had nearly passed out from exhaustion, so…)

What was the prescription for, you ask?  Why…mood stabilizers.  Yes, I'm depressed.  Can't think why…

"What, were you running low on dramatic irony?"  —Xander to Cordelia, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered

Sigh.

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎01‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 5:28 AM, Halting Hex said:

And so 2018 departs the (sort of) great state of South Carolina, home of low property values and thus easily-purchased houses.  No more rent checks, which is hopefully a permanent change, and I managed to squeeze in an insanely-timed "if I'm ever going to go to Hawai'i, it's probably best to do it before the airfare is twice as expensive, what with leaving the East Coast and all" three-day flier to the islands, at that.  So home ownership, parasailing, and another of the 50 states off of the bucket list, all because I liked my trip to SC to see the eclipse in 2017.  As my years go, not bad.

(Plus, I get rain quite regularly now.  Pfft to California and its deserts, I like rain!  It's like coming home.)

As far as this forum goes, many thanks to Joe for getting me worn down on the subject of video reactors.  Sure, it seems somewhat loopy to be following as many as I currently am, but it's quite interesting to see the episodes through new eyes after all this time.

Regrets?  No NYC/Broadway/baseball/concert trips this year; I'll have to make up for it in 2019.  Onward!  (Back to SummerFest this year?  Maybe…)

Wishing all of you all the best.

Yeah, you can get addicted very easily, I'm sorry I didn't get into Aftershow Reacts quicker, I love it when she says what I'm thinking about an ep;

Lilah; "I'm sure Holland Manners is looking down on us now"

Aftershow; "No, I'm pretty sure he's looking up" 

[Halting Hex]

Well, that was quick. One look and I HATE the new forum design.

So the only way to get rid of that towering clot of ads on the right-hand side is to bump of the font-size three times (much like the Grinch's heart). Small problem: at that size, the "last reply" notification is no longer visible. You don't know who replied or when.  All you see is the thread-starter and date.

And the icons are missing, even when the most-recent-reply information is visible.  I used to be able to look at whole raft of Joss icons and be all "wow, Joe's been busy" or see a lot of Jessica <------- and be all, "wow, I guess I need to shut up and stop talking to myself."  Now I've got to read as I go, no more visual clues.

I mean, I can read.  It's just that the visuals were a useful shortcut when scrolling down the page.

Plus I'm probably going to have to constantly reset the font-size, to deal with this.  But hey, we had a perfectly good default, and we couldn't leave that alone, right?  Stupid, stupid, and stupid.  Thanks for nothing, folks!  Grrrr…

ETA:  Apparently the threads with new posts in them will now be listed in bold font, but otherwise no different from the threads that have no new content.  Yeah, that's a real "improvement" on a design where the new threads are in red and the older ones are in black. Because it's much easier to spot a bold font than it is to tell red from black.  Oh, eyeroll!

Edited February 9, 2019 by Halting Hex

[Halting Hex]

Hey, I found this topic again!  Woo and hoo!

Updates:  they never did build all those houses.  Apparently somebody figured out that when the local sewer system is so old and creaky that the maintenance guys have to be out once a month, adding dozens of houses would be a bad idea.  (Other bad ideas included putting an apartment complex on the corner, which actually did violate the zoning laws, but they were planning on it, and building in the wash across the street, which as not only impractical [I mean, it's a gully, how are you going to put a foundation there?] and hardly attractive, with All That Lovely Rain running through the property, but would also block the runoff from other, existing houses, and damage their land, too.)

Actually, I'm guessing this is why this development (it's a closed group of roads, with only one connection to the main road nearby) was stopped in 1970, leaving my place as the last house down the lane.  Somebody back in the happy days of Nixon and Viet Nam realized that they only could fit so many houses on these sewers, and pulled the plug.  As has apparently been the case last year, as well.  So I lost the forest, but didn't gain any new neighbors after all.  And, in theory, trees grow back.  (More good news;  the lot salesman snubbed me about my buying the land next door, so that's money I didn't spend and didn't need to spend, apparently.  Of course, things could change again, but for right now I'd rather have the $.)

Meantime, I'm still waiting to see if South Carolina actually is the Stupidest of the Stupid and will be the very last to have a Shelter Order.  I've been good and been staying in, anyway, so my defiant "I'm NEVER wearing a fucking mask!"* bluster is largely irrelevant anyhow.  But still.

(*—I'm not a slave, I'm not a horse, I'm not a dog;  I'm not going to sacrifice my identity to visibly submit to authority, especially as there's ZERO chance I actually have the virus and the mask doesn't protect you, it just protects others from you, and that's moot beyond the basic point that I didn't go around spitting and sneezing on other people, in the first place.  There's zero indication that healthy people wearing masks does any good, and it's mostly just a symbolic gesture even in Asia.  Screw that.  But JMO.)

Best wishes to everyone else out there.  Stay safe. 

(A bunch of guys in Spain have formed a band called "The Stayhomers" and have released a song urging people to stay in.   Which is nice in theory, but probably is just about finding a way to cash in on the crisis and thus really gross.  [/cynicism])

[Halting Hex]

(Wow, 2020 was aways ago, huh? ^ )

Nothing radically new going on; I only wanted to complain about the latest forum revamp, which has ads all over the page.  I guess I could turn an ad-blocker on and see if that helps, but I know that causes other iss-yews.  Sigh.