inmyriadbits: oranges on blue (weirdlifepersonalpineapple)
inmyriadbits ([personal profile] inmyriadbits) wrote2010-01-26 11:47 pm

she's using a machete to cut through red tape

So, I'm essentially on vacation, working infrequently, and also kinda sick at the moment. When such is the case (okay, fine, I really don't even need the excuse), I tend to spend a lot of time with stories, reading and watching media. My current obsessions:

1. Reading Sherlock Holmes with [livejournal.com profile] thespatz.
Katie and I discovered that we both enjoy Doyle about ten times more when read aloud, because otherwise we tend to skim the big blocks of description and miss the delightful subtleties, which are happily brought out in the dramatic reading. We plan to work our way through the entire collected adventures!

2. The Pretender!
Wow, talk about a blast from the past. I think this one started because we were re-watching the Burn Notice episode where Michael and his antagonist are held hostage in a bank and forced to work together. Katie mentioned the Pretender episode where that also happened, which I didn't remember, so we downloaded it for kicks. And then watched the one where Parker and Jarod are handcuffed and trapped in a hurricane. And then the pilot, and it was all downhill/the rest of S1 from there. I'd forgotten how much I loved that show, and happily, the re-watch is revealing new dimensions that I didn't really understand when I was nine. Katie stole all the things I wanted to say that were actually thoughtful, so we'll leave it at that. :)

3. Vorkosigan. Miles Vorkosigan
I'm re-reading Komarr. Um, again. This is at least the sixth time, at a conservative estimate. And then I plan to re-read A Civil Campaign, which is for more like the tenth time. :D? It's been just long enough since I last did it that I'm really enjoying the experience. *happy sigh* Gosh, I love this series.

4. Nate Fick
Okay, fiction/non-fiction collision. Along with the Generation Kill DVDs Katie and I bought, we got Evan Wright's book that inspired it, and the book that the real-life Nathaniel Fick wrote about his career as a Marine officer, One Bullet Away. I keep having to stop reading because I'm getting waaaay too emotionally over-invested. I can't help it! He talks about things like honor and duty and means it, and man, that gets to me enough when it's fictional characters. Anyway, it's serious personality-crush/fascination territory, so I'm keep avoiding/not-avoiding the book because I don't have the energy.
(side note: when buying this book from Amazon, Katie was browsing the reviews and, after reading a particularly complimentary one, went to see who wrote it – and realized it was written by Rudy Reyes, one of the Marines in Fick's unit in Iraq. It's worth a read.)

In other news, I have been coughing and wheezing at night so badly that it's kept me from sleeping, so I went to the doctor today. To my surprise, they gave me an inhaler (short-term), and hydrocodone cough syrup. I...am not sure this isn't overkill, but whatever. I'm just glad to know I won't be up until dawn tonight.

Also, I totally called that they were going to do something to remove Dom from the show. Namely, because they were giving the guy more lines than usual in last week's episode; I concluded that they were either committing to giving the guy a personality (possible, but not likely considering how belated the attempt was), or they were gearing up to get rid of him and wanted to build sympathy (supported by his mysterious absence at the end of the previous ep). I personally thought they would kill him off, but I see how kidnapped/missing/held hostage leaves their options open.

[identity profile] jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 08:27 am (UTC)(link)

I want a girl with short skirt and a looooooooooong jacket! :D

I really want to rewatch the one where Miss Parker and Lyle are trapped in the shipping container. That was made of awesome.

And yikes. Have you checked for whooping cough??

:/
Jaydeyn

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 08:47 am (UTC)(link)
Yay Cake! I actually totally have plans for a Miss Parker vid to that song. Listen to it with her in mind sometime; it is so delightfully perfect.

Oh, man, I do not remember that episode at all! That makes me SO EXCITED, because I LOVE locked-room scenarios, and that sounds AWESOME. :D

I don't have a fever or any other symptoms, just the cough, so it's not that. From what the doctor said, some unknown thing appears to have irritated my lungs and they're sorta clamping down, a bit like asthma only not chronic. Hence the inhaler to fix the source, and the cough syrup to address the symptoms.

[identity profile] jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 10:41 am (UTC)(link)

Season 4 episode 2, according to Google, though I thought it was much earlier than that! And yes, much snark ensues!

Well that's good (well, better). Been reading about whooping cough and it's resurgence due to stupidity, so was concerned!

:)
Jaydeyn

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Something to look forward to! YAY.

Aww, thanks sweetie. ♥

[identity profile] maribouquet.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 11:34 am (UTC)(link)
Oh no, sickies! Good that your doc cracked open the codeine. Those big coughs are nothing to fiddle around with! I hope you are feeling better soon. I prescribe lots more television and reading about 221B Baker st!

Just was telling Katie that I have been rereading Sherlock Holmes (first reading was at summer camp, age 12. It's been a while.) and I finished Study in Scarlet two nights ago. Nice timing is nice!

I think my mom knows the Fick's - she has an insane memory and is super sociable and sometimes it seems like she knows just about everybody in the Boston area! She saw Nathan speak shortly after his book came out and loved to tell the back-jacket story of his life thusfar. I haven't read it, or seen GK - I'm guessing I should? It sounds really cool.

I have news! Nothing super amazing, just lots of life stuff. Any chance of a phone date this weekend? I miss you and would love us to catch up, if you're feeling up to it!

xox Cassandra

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee, thank you, madame doctor. I heartily concur with your prescription. :D

We just finished A Study in Scarlet, too! Isn't their first meeting the cutest thing EVER? I'd somehow never clocked to the fact that Holmes is a GIANT NERD. It's delightful.

OMG WTF. Your mom KNOWS HIS FAMILY? That is...kinda stream-crossing. Hee. I would actually really love to meet him (since, as with one of those personality-crushes, I don't really have a romantic interest, but sincerely just want to sit and have intellectual discussions with him for hours *sigh*), although I fear that if I ever did, I might just blush and run away.

I highly recommend GK! I haven't read Evan Wright's book yet, but I bet it's great. I saw the miniseries while packing, and it utterly ate my brain and stole my heart – to the point where it was one of those things I didn't even end up talking about on LJ because I was too much in love with it, you know? Not only is it incredibly well done on a production/writing/acting level (and full of very attractive men), but the story itself is fantastic and gut-wrenching and sometimes hilarious. You end up falling completely in love with all 22 personalities in the ensemble (especially, if you're anything like me, Brad and Nate). I cannot recommend it more. Top of the Netflix queue, missy!

I would love a phone date! I miss you so much, and yet, still fail at calling. When's good for you?

[identity profile] maribouquet.livejournal.com 2010-01-28 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
How about a phone date this weekend? Saturday afternoon?

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-30 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
Works for me! Talk to you then. :D

[identity profile] second-batgirl.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 01:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the Miles in love books so much. ♥ ♥ ♥

Feel better!

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign are my three favorite books of the series, and the ones I most love to re-read. Memory isn't a Miles-in-love book, but it's just so damn good. ("Is that...a Cetagandan Order of Merit?"; "Can I go into the bushes and throw up now?";) And then once you throw Ekaterin (MADE OF AWESOME) into that period of Miles' life...fuckin' fantastic. :D

Thank you!

[identity profile] second-batgirl.livejournal.com 2010-02-04 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore Memory. I love all of those books, really. Just SO AWESOME.
trialia: Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), head down, hair wind-streamed, eyes almost closed. (Default)

[personal profile] trialia 2010-01-27 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee. I'm re-reading The Warrior's Apprentice again.

[identity profile] inmyriadbits.livejournal.com 2010-01-27 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't re-read that one in a really long time. I was just at the part in Komarr where he's telling Ekaterin about Sergeant Bothari, and Nikki about that freighter he owned when he was seventeen, though, and I got all nostalgic. ♥