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Re-runs
In an effort to get back into the swing of blogging, I read through some of my previous posts. I think these two posts about Rizzoli and Isles deserve a re-run. I will re-post them over the next couple of days.
As a fan of Tess Gerritsen’s books, when I learned TNT was giving two of Gerritsen’s central characters a show of their own, I was excited, and set my dvr accordingly. Then, I set about waiting to see who had been cast in the titular roles. Don’t ask, it never really occurs to me that I could, you know, use the internet to find out stuff like that in advance. It was obvious from the first commercials I saw that whatever TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles was going to be, it wasn’t going to be too much like the books. For about 7 books I’d imagined Rizzoli, as she is described, with a mop of unruly dark curls, and as good looking, but in a unconventional way; Dr. Isles was, as she is often described, the queen of the dead, a little goth, with red lipstick and straight black hair cut in a bob with straight bangs – which is, as it turns out, how Ms. Gerritsen looks (well, not exactly goth, but you get the idea). While there was never any doubt in my mind these women would be beautiful in their own ways, um … Angie Harmon and Sasha Anderson were not exactly the faces that lept into my mind as I read these books.
To paraphrase Mr. Gump, casting is as casting does. It was silly to have any hopes that these women might be cast differently. This is a review of the show not the books, so this is the last comparison I will make between the two. One of the most compelling aspects of these characters as written are their insecurities, and Jane Rizzoli’s insecurities are tied to her place in a male profession, and what she sees as her inability to meet feminine standards of beauty; it is impossible to make those insecurities play when the woman playing Rizzoli is Angie Harmon.
Like I said, although I’d initially hoped for something a little different, this review isn’t about comparing the television show to the books. The characters, stories, and tone of each is distinct enough that a real comparison is impossible. The books are detective fiction, pure and simple. The television show walks the genre lines between serious police procedural and comedy. It is almost as if the producers really wanted an hour long comedy, and knew stretching a sit com that long would grow tedious, so they decided to incorporate a police procedural to bump up the story. I’ve never seen an episode of Nash Bridges, so I could be wrong, but Rizzoli & Isles makes me think it is like a female version of that show.
It might surprise you, but the light nature of the show is not really what bothers me. A lot of police procedurals err in the opposite way, taking themselves too seriously. What bothers me about Rizzoli & Isles is that the light tone is achieved at the expense of the title characters. At every turn the show undermines the power of two strong women working together, and becoming friends by making every second conversation between the two about getting, or having, a relationship, every third conversation about the case – as if their jobs are an afterthought, and the remaining conversations about clothes and shoes. There has to be some sort of heterosexual romance for at least one of the women in nearly every episode because the writers are working overtime to ensure that it is clear Rizzoli & Isles are not lesbians. (Well, except for those episodes where they pretend to be lesbians – you know, for laughs. Because apparently that is funny.) As a viewer it is impossible to take either Rizzoli or Isles seriously because at every turn we are reminded that Rizzoli can’t get a man because she is not feminine enough, and that despite looking like a fashion plate Isles can’t function socially because she is just too smart.
I keep watching, hoping, for that moment when instead of going for the obvious – undermining women stereotype or joke, the writers will surprise me, but it never comes.
Change of Pace
I am still working more at night, but it has been a little bit of a trade off. The more I work at night, the less likely I am to get up in the morning. Since I’ve been good about writing on my lunch break at work, and I’ve gotten at least two hours of work in each night, I’m okay with that.
I’m still getting up a little early, which is good because then if I need to switch back to the 5 am writing it won’t be so tough. The problem, however, is that I’m usually left with about 15 minutes between the time I’m ready and the time I need to catch the bus. In the summer, I might just head down to the bus stop and use the time to get in some extra reading. It is too cold to spend any extra time at the bust stop right now. And, while I am a master at writing in small chunks here or there, 15 minutes isn’t really the best at this point in the morning. The answer: morning blog posts?
Maybe, but you’ll probably have forgive some missing words and grammatical errors, since I won’t have much time for revision. Just chalk it all up to stroke-brain, and we’ll get along just fine.
The Evening Stand
I’ll be over reporting in about the standing business soon, I promise. For now, it is really all I have to write about.
One of my hopes when creating this standing space was that it would motivate me to move away from the couch/television, and get some work done in the evening. Having spent 8 hours at work sitting in front of a computer screen, the last thing I want to do is come home to sit in front of yet another computer screen. For some reason the television is different. I think it has something to do with those pretty moving pictures. 😉 My thinking was that being in a different position in front of a computer screen might help.
For tonight at least, I was right. Once I’d sat down to eat my dinner it was difficult to get back up. However, once I stood here for a while working on the dissertation, I felt a lot better. True, that might have more to do with making progress on the dissertation than standing, but I do think my change in latitude had a little to do with it.
I got quite a bit of work done tonight, which will hopefully help me sleep a little better.
Standing Day 1
This morning was the first time I tried working from a standing position. It will probably take a little adjustment, but I think that I will like it. To get everything at the right height, I bought three, two shelf closet organizers from Target. Two are 31inches long, and one is 24, and I left the top shelf off of one of each. It gave me just enough room to stack up some books to get the right height for the monitor and keyboard.
What I noticed working today was that having the ability to fidget just that little bit actually helped me to stay a little bit more focused than typically. There are two things I do not really like about this set up. First, I have to keep my laptop shut and tucked away on a shelf to make room for the keyboard and monitor. This means I lose the two monitor set up, I’d grown to really like. Second, I no longer have enough room to keep a document holder set up to easily see the papers I’m working with. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually, and if I keep this up for three months or more then I’ll spring to make a real set up with stuff from Ikea. When I do that I think I’ll get back some of the space that I’ve lost.
Here is a picture of the current set up. Ignore the rest of the mess.
New Year
I may have dropped off the grid a bit in November, but this year will eventually see more consistent posting from me. I am not sure when, but eventually.
Right now I’m trying out a standing desk hack. The way I have it right now will work for tomorrow morning, but I think I’ll need to make a couple of adjustments for long term use. When I have it really workable, I will post pictures.
Never thought I’d be writing this …
Seriously, all in all you’d be hard pressed to find something I care less about. Admittedly, I read one Twilight book. In my defense, I bought it in a moment of homesickness, because really how often do you get to read about the Olympic Peninsula in a novel? At least I made it through that first book, then I read the second. Even after traumatic brain injury I could see how insipid that book was. The only thing that I am less excited about than the Twilight books, would be the Twilight movies, and any media story about those movies.
That said, I don’t live in a cave, so I do inadvertently know more about Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson than I care to. Funny, though, it is still not enough to ensure I’ve purposefully seen any movie they’ve been in. Before I knew who Kristen Stewart was, I watched “Speak” on Lifetime.
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Small things
At some point in the long dark time that was last winter, the DH told me his mantra for when he was feeling particularly unmotivated and depressed was “Puppies are soft and warm.” It worked best when mumbled while snuggling with our pups. I thought if it could work for him, then it would definitely work for me. And it pretty much does.
Today, the only thing keeping me in the chair with my fingers on the keyboard are the soft puppies surrounding me. Moses is tucked in behind me providing heated lumbar support and the Palestinian is on my lap with his head propped on typing arm.
The writing tasks for today are one blog post, and a draft of a conference paper. I did a lot of hand written work yesterday, so there is a good base to work from. Yesterday, I did plan to get more done than I did, but it was a special occasion. Through the miracle of crappy Skype connections between my computer and my little brother’s phone, I got to virtually attend my little sister’s wedding. It was fun.
The conference I have to attend this week is in my home time zone. It is silly, but true. I never feel truly at home unless I am operating on PST. I am ridiculously excited about being close to the Pacific again. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get to touch it, but just knowing it is there, and getting glimpses from the plane will make me happy. I’m not going home, but it will certainly be close enough for now.
Finding the joy
Still writing … it is the long and short wrap up of the three months since I last posted. The dissertation is not done, but hopefully it is much, much closer.
Wow! After three months, you’d think I’d have more to say. Guess I’ve lost my bloggy voice a little. Maybe I just need to take it slowly.
If you haven’t already read Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, then you need to start it today. Actually, although I’m not generally fond of audiobooks with multiple narrators, I suggest you listen to this book. Broken Harbor by Tana French, and Divergent by Veronica Roth also need to be on your reading lists.
Why should you read these books? I’m not quite up to lengthy reviews these days, but let me see if I can come up with a decent list.
Gone Girl – An author has never yet been able to make me switch allegiances between characters so readily. I’m still not sure it ended as I would have liked it to, but I’m also not sure any other ending was really possible. It might not sound like a big, or good thing, but given the way Flynn tells this story it is essential that she gets you to buy in so completely. After Sharp Objects I would not have guessed she had this in her. By the way, Sharp Objects isn’t bad, just not as well crafted in my opinion.
Broken Harbor – Aside from the fact that I’d read just about anything Tana French wrote, I was pleasantly surprised. Although the characters never did exactly what I’d expected, I was never incredulous about the outcome of events: just deeply, deeply sad. One thing I really love about French is how completely the tone and pace of her books changes from one to another. Broken Harbor is, for lack of a better term, sedate, but compelling. Yeah, you read it and try to figure out how that combination works.
Divergent – Finally, a YA novel that doesn’t involve a love triangle. Do you really need another reason beyond that?
Cutting my losses …
This morning I finally finished the revisions to Chapter1 *mostly*, which will end up either Chapter 2 or 3. It is way more than a day late, but hopefully not too short.
The *mostly* (should sound like Newt from Aliens) is because I am waiting on a primary source from the library. When I get it I will have to go back to change one paragraph, but I’m pretty comfortable with that.
Today’s problem is that my brain, motivation, and body all decided that finishing that chapter was good enough. I needed a two hour nap, and once I discovered the Luther marathon, well it really was all she wrote. Idris Elba people, Idris Elba.
So, right now I am trying really hard not to beat myself up about my productivity today.
All day I have been mulling where to go next. Continue on to Chapter 2, where I can work through feed back, or go back to the Preface/Introduction/Chapter 1 type thing, where I need to actually produce new stuff.
In other news, apparently I watch bad television so you don’t have to. This week I set the dvr to record the series premiere of Perception. Apparently, both dvr settings were set to record, and there was nothing recorded he wanted to watch, so the DH ended up watching Perception first. A few days later he mentioned how bad it was.
Foolish me, I chalked it up to his lack of love for the police procedural. Last night, when my brain was completely fried from the week, I turned on Perception, thinking it might as well give it a try. Ummm, wow, just wow. I don’t remember the last thing I have seen that was such a jumble of cliches and really improbable situations.
- Brilliant, but mentally ill / sick (we don’t know) college professor – he hallucinates, possibly schizophrenic, who’s specialty is “forensic neuropyschiatry”
- Determines one suspects innocence by diagnosing rare neurological condition
- “Consults” for the FBI in his spare time – because apparently he never has to prep for class and/or grade
- Determines another suspect is lying by showing the tape to a mental patient who functions as a human lie detector.
- FBI agent is former student, barely looks 22 but has already been promoted/demoted from the field office to Quantico and back. Oh, and whoever this girl is – worst actress ever – really, it is not even worth looking up her name.
House meets Monk meets the Mentalist = worst television ever.
Normally, I am generous with a new show and give it the entire first season, but Perception has already been removed from the dvr settings.
Remodeling
Focus is not what it is cracked up to be – at least not today. Yesterday, yesterday was great. I tried a new system. Work one hour, break one hour, work one hour, break one hour. Yesterday, I got a lot done.
Today, well today, I did not get so much done. It was a day of late starts and attempts to get focus. Walk the dogs first thing to stay out of the heat, and assure that they leave me alone later. Only then sitting down to work took much longer than normal. Found a recipe, ran to the store, came back, and finally got about 40 minutes of writing in. Got up to do yoga, shower, nap, then pretend to start the day over with the work/break/work/break thing. Did the yoga, showered, then got a email letting me know that I had to go to the day job this afternoon.
So …. drive the 40 minutes to work, work for an hour and a half, drive the 40 minutes home, and what do you know it is dinner time. Tried to at least do some reading this evening, but even that is too much to ask.
Between the day job, the dissertation job, the marriage, the house, the dogs, the …. everything I tend to feel like I should get a shiny prize for every morning I get out of bed, and double prizes on the days I get up at 5am. Instead, this week I got a shiny pile of additional crap dropped in my lap. In the end it will all work out some how; but right now, I need a week and an entire house to re-arrange/clean. Since I have only one of those things, and it is not the week, I guess I just have to find another way to cope.
D5 Creation