10 lessons from downtime

[selenak]

Thinks I learned when lj was down.

1.) It's very frustrating to be without it when one is shamefully addicted.

2.) Especially when one looks for overseas reactions to one's newest beloved show.

3.) Which leads one to visit message boards to quench the frustration a bit.

4.) Message boards appear to be prone to more bad spelling, more male posters, and more conservative view points than ljs are.

6.) No, I don't believe there is a context. I know too many female conservatives and male liberals.

7.) One finds out new and exciting things on message boards nonetheless. For example, I wouldn't have taken President Roslin's reflection in the episode Water about the late President Adar sending in the troops somewhere and in private admitting that it was a mistake, even though he never could in public, to be anything but a character-building moment where she reminds both herself and Lee Adama that yes, leaders can make mistakes, and that it was important to learn from them. A suprising number of conservative posters on said message boards, however, took this tidbit of dialogue to be a direct attack on George W. Bush.

8.) I also found out I'm a bad film buff. I mean, how often did I watch Blade Runner? I even in my very first post on the new Battlestar Galactica made the comparison. And yet I never realized until visiting these message boards that...



E.J. Olmos, who plays William Adama in the new BSG, see here:




also played Mr. "Too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?" in my favourite Sci-Fi movie of all time. Bad fangirl.



9.) Meanwhile, I was cut off from all my other enthusiasms, and the ATPOBTVS board didn't help, as I had already read it a few days ago.

10.) Hi, I'm Selena. I'm an lj addict.

Comments

[elz.livejournal.com]

2.) Especially when one looks for overseas reactions to one's newest beloved show.

3.) Which leads one to visit message boards to quench the frustration a bit.

Hee! I did the exact same thing, and had pretty much the exact same reaction. Looks like this show will be generating quite a few political flamewars in fandom-at-large. Am glad I won't have to read most of them. And I kind of do tend to forget that there are men who like science fiction. Weird, eh?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Men are such a minority in lj world that one tends to be forget they used to be the majority in sci-fi fandoms in general, yes.*g*

[zarq.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting point about #6 and perhaps it even is a (deserved) criticism of Bush.

However, the same could easily be said for a number of other American Presidents or leaders of other countries who have made the mistake of sending in troops at the wrong time, the wrong place or in the wrong way. I think conservatives are just being a wee bit sensitive about it. Of course, they have good reason to. Betcha if Roslin gets involved in a sex scandal, they'll claim it's a timely commentary on the Clinton administration.

And yes, I'm male and a moderate liberal. *looks up* I'm also into sci fi. :-)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'd be very surprised if Moore & Co. actually were thinking of Bush when writing that particular line, yes. Honestly,it never occured to me it could be Bush-related before reading the complaints.

Billy the assistant as Monica?*g*

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

Billy's to freakin' adorable to be Monica. just sayin'.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

True.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

It didn't occur to me, either. I do vaguely remember Moore being annoyed about the whole Clinton scandal on the AOL boards when that was happening, though. IIRC, he was upset Congress was pushing its collective nose into a President's personal life to the exclusion of getting actual work for the country accomplished. I happened to agree.

Maybe he's falling into the thinking that the best scifi stories make relevant analogies and teach us perspectives on current events? Or maybe he just thought it was good television -- which it was!

As for um, Billy............

I'm just going to forgo the mental exercise of imagining where a blue dress and a cigar would fit into that little story thread and say "I hope not." :-)

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Besides, Boomer's much more my speed than Billy. ;-)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Agreed re: Clinton. Especially from a transatlantic perspective. It was so incredibly bizarre and is even more bizarre in retrospect, because of the non-reactions to the actually politically relevant "misinformation", to use a bad euphemism, which the Bush administration gave as a ground for war, or the new attorney general with his torture-approving memos, or... but now I'm getting into a rant, and I didn't want to. Sorry.

(Don't worry, I think Billy is safe.*g*)

[zarq.livejournal.com]

There's been a lot of positive reaction to the misinformation given from the Democrat left in the sense that there's outrage and a call for accountability, but I doubt it will amount to anything.

I swear, if I had any artistic talent, I'd make an icon of Cheney morphing into a metalo-Cylon and back again.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, I was cut off from all my other enthusiasms, and the ATPOBTVS board didn't help,
Hi, I'm Jane. I'm an lj addict. For future reference, a whole lot of us from ATPO and from lj created accounts over on greatestjournal.com as a backup. It saved a number of us from the lj withdrawel shakes today. But it's really good to be back.
I loved the Battlestar Galactica premiere tonight.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That's good to know - all of it.*g*

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

An addict? You and god knows how many other people.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Point taken.*g*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

re: 7 -- sigh; it sometimes seems hard to find something that certain elements of American conservatism will NOT take as a direct attack on W. that said, I did see the same parallel -- not in a sense of "knee-jerk liberalism" so much as "let's show leaders who are taking the time to think about the repercussions of their actions." though I'll admit to a bias from watching this straight after a week's worth of Jon Stewart saying basically the same thing.

BSG -- the more I think about this show, the more I love it, and that of course is a good sign. right now, aside from my insty-girlcrush on Starbuck, I think my favorite thing is the parallel relationships that Apollo has with his father and with Roslin. the fact that Laura is, at this point, a seemingly better parent to him than Adama is poignant. lovely stuff, and can't wait for more.

LJ time off just FORCED me to watch a lot of "Firefly," in addition to BSG, and made me feel like Simon in this icon.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you have lots of skills, to quote Xander.*g* You write readable, lovely AUs!

Also: as both Laura Roslin and Adama are shown as good people trying to do their best, I think the show is very fair to both povs. And neither of them is always right. Just wait till you see Bastille Day next week!

skills

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

as for the AU's, I just got a (loving) note from an LJ-friend in Texas, gently informing me that I know nothing about firearms. which is true, and the story is getting ready to venture into other territory I know nothing about. no wonder I prefer vampire-stuff where I can make it all up. (thank God for phlebotnin!)

about the GWB parallel thing with BSG -- I did notice one of the characters pointedly using the phrase "stay the course," which has very much been an administration catchphrase. I can't think it was an accident, but I don't think it's a bad thing. It's not as if the writers are trying to stuff political dogma down the unwilling throats of conservative sci-fi fans; it does give a little extra residence.

today it looks like my DVR is going to run out of space from all the Mi-5 (Spooks) that I've recorded and haven't gotten to. I might just have to watch it for a few hours, which would be tragic.

[kathyh]

Hi, I'm Selena. I'm an lj addict.

Hi, I'm Kathy. I'm an lj addict too. It was like being cut off from the world. There were honestly several times when I simply stared at the screen message telling me it was down for minutes on end. I am deeply sad...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

We are a sorry lot.*g*

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

dude. my life is so much easier when i don't go to the boards.

also, if it is a commentary on the real world (i know they've said that it hits closer to home in a post 9/11 world, yadda, yadda but other than that...) i don't want to know. i'm just going to pretend that these people have imaginations and that they are writing stories that make sense in the context as opposed to trying to make it about subtle digs and clever commentary on the world we live in now.

also, a lot of the people that i watch the eps with, including myself, are fairly conservative politically and not a single one of us made that connection. i like my sci-fi as real life commentary as vague as you can get, yo.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As I said, I never made that connection myself, and I seriously doubt Moore ever intended it. That said, I do think there are several contemporary issues addressed in the show - for example, Duella walking past the wall with pictures of lost family members people are looking for had an obvious echo of those picture walls in New York I saw myself. Doesn't mean Cylon attack = 9/11, just that Moore & Co. want to convey that kind of emotional impact, loss and grief. Which of course a catastrophe like the one befalling humanity would have.

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

I can totally see that and understand how that kind of mental image can help the audience connect to the situation and the character(s). i just hope that they don't try to make the show a commentary on specific situations that are going on now when they can make their point in a much more general way. which i think is what they're doing and i'm not worried really. it's just a reminder that i like my shows to stay in the fictional realm and make my own parallels. and that i hate the 99% of board culture now that i've been away from it more.

i don't see bsg as my popcorn show at all (that's totally alias, yo.) but i do want to remain flexible enough that i'm willing to jump in with them wherever they lead. and that really had nothing to do with anything did it.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

I am such an addict. I missed you guys.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Me too! *clutches lj to breast like Victorian heroine her beloved's pressed flower in book of poetry*

[fay-morgenstern.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Selena. I'm an lj addict.

Hi, I'm Luna Fenice, a former LJ-addict. I achieved this state of mind by depending on a badly and hardly functioning computer. It cut down my online time to a few hours a week. Despite the general assumption that being addiction-free is something to strive for, it is not. Your life becomes so...full of spare time you could use for horrible useful things like doing your homework (should you happen to be student) or anything else you have to do. It is terrible. Therefor I decided to become addicted again. Life is so much easier when you can blame it on addictions.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? Welcome back among the addicted!

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

We did not, in fact, see BG on Friday night, due in part to losing my job on Friday. Perhaps next week....

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason to curse your (former) employers!

[janewt.livejournal.com]

LJ addict.

What I did with my computer since I couldn't be on LJ? Exchanged emails with someone about LJ.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

He. I did that, too.*g*

[spoonishly.livejournal.com]

Heh, I actually thought it was a BSG conspiracy. I wanted to see thoughts and discussion from those just seeing it for the first time and then outage. It was BSG's fault! LJ doesn't like Starbuck as woman, apparently.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That must be it.*g*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

10.) Hi, I'm Selena. I'm an lj addict.

"HI SELENA!"

& ;-) Uni job done. Off I run to mail your parcel!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you, oh precious one!