The Walking Dead 3.1: "Seed"

Yup. It’s that time again… time for Josh Winstead and myself to recap The Walking Dead for y’all! This week marked the return of our favourite zombie show, and since it’s been a while since I’ve watched a show that truly made me squirm in my seat and punch myself in the leg repeatedly while looking down and moaning, “No… no… no… so wrong…” it’s probably time for a quick recap.

Where we left our survivors in S2 (you can read our recap here):

• Lori showed her true colours: all season long she’d been pushing Shane to take out Rick, and Rick to take out Shane. I believed she truly loved Rick, but when Rick stepped out and killed Shane, she reacted with true revulsion, freaking out that she couldn’t believe Rick would do that. And that’s when you could tell he realized it was Shane she wanted to survive that battle.
• Carl killed a walker. The little annoying kid who never stayed in the house even though they constantly told him to STAY IN THE DAMN HOUSE finally stepped up and killed a walker. Oh, and Lori’s pretty pissed about that, too.
• T-Bone disappeared for most of the season and came back at the end and somehow didn’t die.
• Hershel took out a ton of zombies before vacating his farm because his shotgun happens to carry TWO THOUSAND ROUNDS at once. Amazing.
• Maggie and Glenn got it on.
• Fans wished Carol and Daryl would get it on.
• Hershel did not get it on.
• Dale died.
• Hershel’s other daughter, Beth (the suicidal one), also made it off the farm.
• Andrea split off from the rest of the group and fought off a ton of forest zombies, only to be met by what I referred to in my final recap as “Dark McScary and his two faithful creepazoids,” showing I really had no clue who this person is. For, as we now all know if you’ve followed entertainment news at all this year, Dark McScary is actually a SHE named Michonne.
• Jack Shephard Sawyer Rick told the gang that there’s a new sheriff in town, and he is it, and secondly, they’re all infected with the zombie virus, and if they die they will reanimate as a walker. They’re pretty ticked off that he had kept this news from them. (Our main discussion post-episode was whether or not this was information he should have shared.)

And that’s where we’re at. So before I bring Josh on board for his opening comments, I’ll just say I really enjoyed this opening episode, especially because for the first time things have been pushed far into the future. We’re now several months later (and even though we saw the prison in the distance, they are only finding it now) and Lori is very, very pregnant, and somehow they still have all their numbers intact. The episode opened with an incredible shot that looks almost like the inside of a seashell, then it pulls back and we realize we were inside a zombie’s eyeball, and it’s as lifeless on the inside as it is on the outside. What an extraordinary shot.

From there we watch our gang move into a house by first killing all the walkers, then going through the cupboards for food, and Carl finds some dog food. He pries it open and Rick sees what he’s doing and, in front of everyone, picks it up and hurls it to the other side of the room. There’s tension you could cut with a knife, and when they see another group of walkers coming they all hop in their cars (Daryl prefers his bike) and leave.

There isn’t a single word uttered in this opening, but the silence is heavy with meaning. Rick and Lori don’t even look at each other, the people aren’t happy with Rick’s leadership, Carl has grown up, Glenn and Maggie are still together, and it is tense. The perfect way to open the season.

What were your initial thoughts on the opening of the episode, Josh?

Joshua: Opening on the close-up of an eye like this seems... familiar somehow. I can't shake the feeling that I've seen it somewhere before. Help me out here, TV Scholar. :)

Well, we're back on This Island Earth, and Jack whoever this eye belongs to has seen better days. So has this kitchen. And whoa, that may be the most desiccated corpse I've ever seen on this show. In fact, everything appears to have continued its steady decline into post-apocalyptic miasma and ruin except our band of merry misfits, who instead have grown lean, cool and ruthlessly efficient in the interim. Or maybe they're just really frickin' hungry.

I too loved the way the lack of dialogue in this sequence further communicated how well the group has adapted to the day-to-day operational demands of their situation, requiring no more than hand signals between them to carry out their search and destroy mission. And, of course, it also served as a poignant reminder of how golden silence has become in a world wherein the noisier you are, the more attention you attract from your ravenous adversaries, a fact further telegraphed by the large handmade-looking silencers on their guns.

All in all, we are given the impression that during the six or seven months' time that has passed since the end of last season, everyone has moved well past the kind of growing pains we previously experienced ad nauseam and have fully accepted their new lot in life, if not exactly embraced it. Even Carl appears quite capable, and now that I think of it, that's a great way to keep up with him – put him on point!

Within the first few minutes after the new credit sequence, Rick has found the prison we saw in the distance at the end of last year's finale, and everyone's quickly delegated to clear the yard for some well-protected campground. The whole group seems much tighter, more like a real team than a loose aggregation borne out of necessity, and I found myself really enjoying their banter for the first time in as long as I can remember – Carol's playful flirting with Daryl, the tenderness between Maggie and Glenn, Hershel urging Beth to sing. Their choice of 'The Parting Glass,' an old traditional farewell song from the British Isles, was a poignant one, and the lyrics in this context gave me chills:

But since it falls unto my lot,

That I should rise and you should not,

I gently rise and softly call,

Good night and joy be with you all.

I thought Emily Kinney's rendition was lovely. She has a singing career on the side, and it shows. (As a side note, I understand the version available on iTunes is orchestrated, not a cappella; I'll try to check it out before next week.)

And then there's Rick, who has certainly made good on his promise of leadership but comes across as haunted and hollow in a way the others don't. We are shown that his relationship with Lori is more strained than ever, despite (or perhaps because of) her growing belly. What do you make of this, Nikki? Is Shane still coming between then, even from beyond the grave?

Nikki: I didn’t actually rewatch the end of season 2 before season 3 began, and it could have been why I was perplexed about his behavior towards Lori in this episode at first, but when I reread our recap of that S2 finale, I was reminded of her hostile reaction to him reassuring her that he did away with Shane and Shane won’t be botherin’ them no more. Rick clearly saw through her in that moment and realized that she wanted to be with Shane over him. Now, several months later (hard to tell since she was a month or two into her pregnancy at the end of S2 and now she’s near the end, so maybe 7 months later?) she’s come to terms with Shane being gone, and knows Rick is her only hope of a relationship, and obviously she still has feelings for him. But he’s decided to bury his feelings (again like a certain doctor we’re both very familiar with) and has hardened himself to the group. He’s more of an army commander out of necessity, and can’t let Lori cloud his judgment by getting in his way, so he just nudges her aside.

However, watch how instantly concerned he is when Carol comes out and asks for Hershel in the jail cell.

The jailbreak scene (er… what do you call it when someone is breaking INTO a jail?) was gruesome and horrific, and made me groan with disgust and look away more than once. As you say, these people are no longer a haphazard group of survivors throwing rocks and shrieking as they run away: they are killing machines, and they’re REALLY good at it. They move swiftly and efficiently, doing away with the zombies usually with a single stab. Though I’ll admit, my husband and I couldn’t figure out why they’d throw open the gates and go right in there, when clearly the zombies are stupid enough to walk right up to the fence and you could take them all out, one by one, without ever risking anything. That said, they did move pretty quickly to do the job on this one. And it wouldn’t have been as entertaining for us as an audience to watch them jabbing people through a fence for half an hour.

Two moments of fan service I loved in this one:

• Carol propositioning Daryl: something we’ve wanted all along (though she was joking).
• Rick saying, “Carl? Stay behind.” HAHA! Both my husband and I simultaneously through our arms up in the air and made noises of disgust. And then… he stayed. Turns out, the only thing that’ll keep Ranger Carl rooted to one spot is a super-cute girl.

So what did you make of the Andrea/Michonne situation? You probably know something about Andrea’s illness via the books, but I’m thinking it could just be a flu. Something small could bring a person down and spell death in this new world.

Joshua: Actually, I don't recall Andrea's illness being part of the comic's narrative. If memory serves, Michonne appears outside the walls of the prison one day, saves Otis' life (who was around a while longer in the books) and is assimilated into the group. The show obviously has other designs for her. But flu (with maybe a bacterial complication like pneumonia) is what I thought, too, and you're absolutely right in that it could easily be deadly without a source of medication or even a place to rest. Their storyline was only grazed in this episode, but we did get a nice implication of the closeness that has developed between them with their brief exchange in the cooler. I am more curious about the ambiguity of Andrea's statement that “They're coming,” which almost gave the impression they're being pursued. It could certainly have been referring only to walkers in general, but I like the idea that there might be more going on than meets the eye. At any rate, I assume the two of them will get more focus in Sunday's outing.

Since you discussed the jailbreak, I want to make special mention of the zombies in riot gear, which I thought was a great way of turning the situation on its ear by introducing a simple, logical element that complicated their raid in a truly novel way and worked wonders ratcheting up the tension in an already tense scene. It also gave Maggie a perfect moment to shine when she figures out how to foil the helmet by stabbing up through the chin, a technique that everyone else immediately adopts to expert result.

Also, face-off = awesome.

Once they get inside the prison, we get another great sequence of social moments – the  second of the episode – with Glenn checking Maggie for scratches, and Carl in Beth's cell, with Hershel appearing at the perfect moment to foil his play for top bunk, and Rick moving off by himself. I love the balance they struck this week, with these intermediary personal scenes to offset the violence and horror, and I think it bodes well for the season as a whole if they look to maintain a similar tone throughout. I loved the use of your Canadian compatriot Patrick Watson's beautiful song 'Quiet Sunday' too, which is my favorite from his recent album and was perfect accompaniment for their moments of repose.

But, of course, the quiet never lasts long on 'The Walking Dead.' Rick, knowing Lori could give birth any day and desperate to provide the group with a safe haven after months of being on the run, has them press on into the interior of the compound, to predictably horrific results. How's that for a cliffhanger? Yikes.

Nikki: Not only that, but looks like Lori may be out of luck for a delivery doctor. Eep. I was so happy to see that Hershel was still with the gang after all these months, and so sad to see that he might be the first major casualty of the season. But mostly, as I said aloud to my husband, what the hell will Lori do if the doc isn’t there to deliver the baby? (Poor Hershel, reduced to his occupation…) I guess we’re going back to the basics: she wouldn’t be the first woman to deliver a baby on her own. At least she’s surrounded by other people who are survivalists.

And the face-off scene may have topped the zombie body breaking in half as they pulled it out of the well. Geeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh…..

Next week, I’m looking forward to seeing if Carl will continue to stand still, if Hershel can survive having his leg amputated (good GOD that scene was horrible to watch; in fact, I’ll confess now that I covered my eyes) and what the deal is with Andrea and Michonne. But mostly, finding out who the other human beings are inside the compound. The fact that they’re all in prisoner clothing doesn’t bode well (they aren’t exactly upstanding citizens by the looks of it) but Rick will have to swallow his morality and team up with them if he wants to survive, methinks.

One note, however: I’m wondering if Carl can possibly survive this season? I worry he’s going to suffer from Lost’s Walt Syndrome: they have a young actor who is noticeably aging every year, and they can’t keep zipping us ahead 7 months every time we start a new season. Will they off him just to keep the storyline consistent?

Any final thoughts, Josh?

Joshua: Scott Wilson has done such a terrific job with his portrayal of Hershel, and he was breaking my heart as he weathered the agony of those moments post-chomp. Rick was fast on the hatchet, though, so maybe he'll pull through. Sheriff's hats off to Andrew Lincoln for his performance in that scene, as well; I was so captivated by the two of them that I have no recollection of what anyone else in the room was doing at the time, Maggie included.

Speaking of anyone else in the room, I think you're correct that the dirty new faces in prison jumpsuits are reason for concern. But it has been many months since the fall of the world; maybe they're all simply former guards who raided the laundry for clean clothes. Right? Let's be positive here. I'm sure none of them are institutionalized lunatics driven further toward frenzied psychosis by the dawn of the zombie apocalypse. They're probably all perfectly nice boys, just in desperate need of a bath. In fact, I hereby predict that next episode will be all about making fire, for the shared purposes of ghastly hatchet wound cauterization and warming bath water.

Bits & Bobs:

•  Daryl's new Man-With-No-Name poncho gets a big thumbs up from me.

•  Still no substance to T-Dog's character at all. I hope they figure out what to do with him soon, because it's gotten a bit ridiculous at this point.

•  MICHONNE. Finally. (That delicious snarl, by the way? Never leaves her face.)

•  Despite the addition of a samurai sword to the ever-broadening combat arsenal, this episode's pitchfork-and-clawhammer combo may be my new favorite.

•  I neglected to mention so earlier, but the conversation between Lori and Hershel about the birth and its enormous potential for atrocity accomplished something I wasn't sure possible: it made me feel sympathetic toward Lori. Well-written, well-played. Nice work all around.

And that's it for this week, folks. Cinch up those tourniquets and elevate the injury; it's gonna seem like a long time until Sunday night.

"I Lost My Girl to an Argentinian Cowboy"... and Other Non-Hits

Today on Facebook I noticed a couple of friends, Dale and Ensley, talking about hearing funny songs on the radio that they couldn't believe were real songs. It reminded me of this amazing CD my husband picked up a few years ago and brought home as we listened to it, doubled over in laughter. It's AMAZING.

You've probably all heard of vanity publishing — where non-writers with a lot of money pay publishing houses money to publish their usually terribly written books — but in the 60s and 70s, there was a small movement of vanity recording. In short, recording studios would put ads in the paper asking you to write your own lyrics, send them with a particular amount of money between $75 and $400 to the studio, and they'd bring in one of their on-staff singers to set it to music, sing it, and they'd record it.

The result was songs like "Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush" or "Ho, I Got to Find You, Baby," or "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'," or, my personal favourite, "Blind Man's Penis (Peace and Love)" (the parenthetical part of the title makes me laugh even harder) that contains the hit-making lyric, "A blind man's penis/ Is erect because he's blind."

A few years ago a collector went out searching for these and began buying them up, and put them together into this gut-busting collection. The words are terrible and awesome, the singing is half-assed, the music is rehashed, and the result is pure awesome.

The album is called The American Song-Poem Anthology and you can get it at Amazon by clicking on the title. And I can promise you, you've never heard anything like it.

Looper: is there something a little wibbly-wobbly with this timey-wimey?

Tonight my husband and I had our first night out in a long time. Our plan was to go out for a nice meal, then see Looper and maybe fit Argo in afterwards. The restaurant was full, with a 40-minute wait. So we left and hit a Vietnamese restaurant we hadn't been to in a while so we could make the two movies. After 15 minutes we were still waiting and eventually asked someone if they could take our order. The girl went and grabbed a notepad and wrote down our order all wrong, so when the food came it was so crazy spicy and hot I couldn't actually eat it. But we didn't have time to order again, so I ate a few bites, gulped down a few pitchers of water, and my husband got down more of it but he couldn't manage much. We gave up, paid, and left.

Hit the first theatre, sold out. Had to head to the other side of town, and now our double movie was out of the question. We chose Looper and the mall parking lot was like Christmas, it was so busy. My husband looked at me and said, "I think this just isn't our night." I said no, we have to get SOMETHING to go right. He dropped me off and I ran in to grab tickets, and the mass of people in there was unbelievable. What the hell? I mean, I'm glad people are going to the movies, but... not if I can't. ;)

I jumped into a kiosk line and the brain trusts at the front of the line spent 8 minutes (I timed them) trying to get their cards to work in the automated teller, and those of us in line, being good Canadians, grumbled angrily under our breath while not uttering a word to them. They eventually turned and announced to all of us that the machine simply didn't work. The guy in front of me didn't believe them, and stepped up as they walked away. It worked just fine. I got our tickets, we went into an almost-full theatre, but nabbed two seats that were NOT in the front row, thank goodness. Things were looking up.

And Looper, by the way, is a fun, timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly bit of time travel sci-fi about a group of people called Loopers: in 2044, they are assassins. But not of anyone in our timeline. A criminal element in 2074 finds people they need killed, send them in a time machine back to a spot in 2044, where the Looper is standing, and the Looper is given a time to be standing there. He waits, checks his watch, readies his gun, the hit suddenly appears, and bang, job done. Here's the catch: a Looper signs an agreement that in 30 years, he will be hunted down and sent back in time to HIMSELF, and that Looper will know he's just killed his future self when he turns the dead man over and finds gold strapped to his back. He will then take the gold, cash out of the game, and spend the next 30 years having a hell of a time, knowing that he'll be assassinated by himself. And that's called closing the loop, hence their name.

So when Joseph Gordon-Levitt's future self, Bruce Willis, suddenly shows up and immediately beats the crap out of him, things haven't gone as planned, and now Gordon-Levitt must hunt down Willis and kill him to close the loop and make it so the Looper head office, so to speak, doesn't torture him to get the future Looper back (the scene where we watch this happen to someone else is gruesomely amazing). Willis, on the other hand, has an agenda, which ends up changing the direction of the film.

We both enjoyed the movie a lot, and thought it was a great concept that was well executed. But I had a few gripes with the actual timelines that happened in the film (and I can thank Lost season 5 and Doctor Who for making me think about it so much), and so I will list them here.

Spoilers
if
you
haven't
seen
the
film
yet.

Seriously
stop
reading
this
now
and
go
see
the
film.

You saw the film, right? You're not cheating?

Adding
a
few
lines
just
in
case.

OK, it's just us now. So here's my beef. They establish early on that there's a main timeline: Willis comes back, Levitt kills him. Levitt lives the next 30 years of his life the way we watch it unfold, but then he gets to the end of that 30 years and knows what will happen next, and wants things to be different. So when it's time to be killed, he immediately starts changing the timeline. He beats his younger self up, and so now we see the second timeline begin, which is essentially (unlike Lost and more like Back to the Future) the first timeline with things changing. Remember Hurley saying he was waiting for his hand to disappear and Miles telling him that was ridiculous? Well, in this one, hands disappear.

So. Willis's entire modus operandi is to find the Rainmaker, who he assumes is a child, and kill him. Why he doesn't assume the Rainmaker is in his sixties or is a woman (why does he assume children and not their mothers??) is quickly swept under the carpet with a couple of sentences, and off he goes to hunt down the three kids whose birth dates correspond to some numbers he found. As Levitt experiences things, Willis begins to change because his just being there is changing this timeline, and therefore changing his past and everything that has happened. If he'd just been killed, none of this would have happened.

We realize the Rainmaker is Cid, a little boy with telekinetic powers. His mother originally abandoned him but has come back and is raising him with all the love she has, and is beginning to teach him how to control his powers. But when Willis comes back, hunting Cid with a vengeance, Levitt finally figures out how the Rainmaker was made: he saw Willis gun down his mother, and he jumped on a train and got away, knowing he could have stopped him but didn't, and grows up, uses his power to kill every Looper out of revenge for what happened to his mother, and that's how Willis ended up being returned the way he did.

So here's my question: How was the Rainmaker actually created if he existed in the original timeline, BEFORE Willis actually went back and turned the little boy into the monster? It was Willis that made him bad. But he wouldn't have turned bad if Willis hadn't shown up, and in the original timeline, Willis didn't show up.

The same could actually be said for the torture scene, which although amazing, as mentioned above, didn't make sense. They needed their future Looper killed in this timeline and couldn't have him wandering around on the loose, so they torture his present self, chopping off body parts so the future Looper becomes less and less of a piece of flesh until they make him come to them so they can do away with him. Um... why not just kill the younger version, which would make the older version vanish?

I know it's likely I'm missing something in both instances, so I'd love to hear what some of you thought who are into time travel fiction and saw the movie. Did you find it inconsistent?

Don't get me wrong: I really did enjoy it, and would recommend it. Gordon-Levitt's prosthesis is worth the price of admission alone. I actually thought Kid Blue was Abe in the past (I thought that would have been pretty cool) or was the Rainmaker. But in the end he was just a jacked-up baddie. What I did like was the subtle message at the end that our past dictates our future, and I loved the image of the dead Young Joe in the field, with Sarah stroking his hair the way he'd remembered his mother stroking his. He grew up a deadbeat because she left him, but Sarah is the mother who stayed, and because of a mother's devotion and love, her son actually has a chance to be a good person.

My New Office!

So as many of you know, I had a big life change a few months ago. I left my job of 15 years, picked up my life of 16 years in Toronto, and moved two hours west to the much smaller, much quieter city of London, Ontario (where I grew up, so it's not new to me). I left my work in June, took the summer off, moved, settled in, and now the kids are in a new school, I'm in my new house, I'm working for the same company as a freelancer (while taking in a couple of other jobs) and I've somehow become the Brownie leader for my daughter's unit. (First meeting is tomorrow night: wish me luck.)

When people call or email me they always ask how we're liking the new house. And I always answer the same way: I LOVE MY NEW OFFICE!!! See, in our first house, my office was upstairs in a small room. I wrote the second edition of Bite Me! in that room, as well as my Angel and Alias books (those last two I wrote while pregnant with my daughter). And then she was born... and she, well, needed a room. And so I lost my office.

Very quickly we realized that house was too small, and we moved. Now I had a new, large office. My first Finding Lost book was written there, as was season 3. It had a guest bed in the side, but hey, it was still an office, and bigger than the one before. And... then my son was born. And I lost my office. I moved across the hall and set up my little desk in a corner of the master bedroom, where I wrote Finding Lost seasons 4, 5, and 6 (as well as all those blog entries).

So when we were looking for a house, I didn't have "NIKKI'S OFFICE" as a necessity, but I will admit I was keeping my eye out for a nook. Just a nook that wasn't part of another room, that wasn't going to be taken over by something else; hell, I didn't care if it was a closet, just SOME room I could call my own.

And then we found the house we fell in love with. I loved it for the backyard woods, for the big master bedroom with the cathedral ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the backyard woods, and for the rec room. And I spotted a room that looked like it might be my office, but it would have to be shared with something else. Sigh. Oh well, I loved the rest of the house, so it would be fine.

And then we moved in. And I realized... that room? It could TOTALLY be my room. The entire thing. And now I'm going to sound boastful but I just have to say I LOVE THIS ROOM and I spent most of my time in it. It's not a nook. It's huge, and it has vaulted ceilings like the master bedroom (the architect was someone after my own heart). We were going to put our three biggest and best bookshelves (turns out we had 12... how the hell did we get that many?!) around the main rooms, but in the end they looked best in here. The previous owner was downsizing and sold his large desk to my husband, so I got to lose the little desk I had (it's upstairs on the landing for when the kids are older) and I inherited his larger L-shaped one. The room has a FIREPLACE (eeee!!!!) and windows with window seats in it. Sigh... I just love it. (I'm sitting here right now.) I'm surrounded by my books, my geek implements (my husband's term), and everything that is mine, and I'm just so happy here.

You know what? Words don't do it justice. Let me give you the small tour. Here's the view from my desk:

I can see the driveway through the front window, so I always know if someone is coming to the door, and who is driving past (we live on a quiet cul de sac of about 20 houses, so hours can go by sometimes where I don't see a single car drive by). Just look at that ceiling!! I LOVE IT.

From the doorway of the room, you can see my beloved piano. It's a turn of the century Heintzman upright grand piano, and when my husband explained this to several moving companies, they were suddenly no longer interested in our business. We ended up getting these three amazing guys, but when they were ready to move the piano in, I had to leave the room because I couldn't watch. The thought of anything happening to my piano would break my heart. Note the ever-present cat in the foreground. Usually they're both there, but somehow the little cat got the run of the room on this particular day.

Beside the piano is my fireplace (they closed it in, but we can reopen it and have the chimney cleaned — I have visions of Oliver Twist showing up — if we want to use it again. I just use it for scented candles right now, haha!) and on the large mantle of my fireplace is my shelf of nerd-dom. In the middle are some books written by some chick about Lost and Buffy and stuff, and beside those some books written by her husband about golf and Tim Hortons. Here are close-ups of the two sides:

Buffy and her boys, with a former Webelo beside them. Look in front of him: when I was at the Lost conference in New Orleans last fall, they had these smooth black and white stones in containers in the lobby for decoration. I think the containers were almost empty by the end of the conference. Like a Lost fan is going to walk by THAT opportunity and not swipe the infamous "two sides" stones! Beside those is my little crocheted Desmond doll that Rebecca Thompson (aka SonshineMusic) made for me!

And the other side, where my knitted Dalek from Christina Boulard sits next to the plastic Dalek my friend Graeme gave me, and my beloved Mr. Pointy award and my equally beloved Buffy Rewatch bracelet! Oh, and the French Taunter. (He keeps calling me a kiniggit...)

And... my desk! And bookshelves.

I always wanted to just live in a library. Now I kind of get that feeling every time I sit here. I love looking around at all of my books. Well, not all them. There are those eight other shelves in the house (cripes). As I said on Facebook, I'm about three books away from being on an episode of Hoarders.

Of course, on the largest bookshelf to the right of the picture, it's not just books that are sitting next to me.

This is my shelf with some books, some comic books, all my pop culture reference books, and Opus and the Brain and my Spike bobblehead. Oh, and all my Buffy characters.

All crammed together on one shelf. Poor things. They used to have a cabinet all to themselves. Now they all hang out together, while my son keeps pointing to the Gentlemen in the back and wanting to know more about them. "But why don't they talk, Mommy?"

I have all my Whedon scholar books here... here are some of them (more of them are on other shelves):

I recommended many of these books to you during the Buffy rewatch, but in case you missed that, here they are again, go out and get them! (And also, I just noticed Getting Lost somehow sneaked its way into that photo... darn you, Getting Lost. I'm sure there isn't a person out there who hasn't heard me gripe about how my series was supposed to be called Getting Lost, and then this book took that title and came out one month before mine so I was forced to change it... in the end, I think I like my title better.) ;)

And speaking of which, this shelf is for the Lost fans. Can you guess the common theme here?

The shelf of Lost literature... the shelf that made researching the Finding Lost books twice as difficult as it should have been! It's a shelf I'm very proud of.

I actually took this photo while we were still moving in. Just as I was sticking the books onto that shelf, I noticed the backs of them for the first time in ages. Here's a select few, to show you what my Lost books all look like:

Ha! See, I really wasn't faking it. But then again, I'm the same person who read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the original Middle English, rather than going out and buying the modern English translation like every other student in the class. Because I clearly knew that learning the language would be hella useful one day. ;)

On the other side of my desk are my two proper bookshelves that are all books...:

Here's a peek at the backyard that made me fall in love with this house in the first place. Here's the view out of the back window of my office, when I'm sitting at my desk:

And here's the garden path down the side of the house into the woods behind:

And finally, when you walk down the stones in the path above, you get to the entrance to the woods:

I especially love those rickety old wooden chairs that sit there. You can't actually sit in them because they'd fall apart (and your bottom would be full of splinters) but they look like they're just there in case some pixies or fairies want to use them at night. You can see a narrow path through the plants just to the right of the picture there, and that little path then leads up the hill and straight into the woods. I took these photos when we first moved in, by the way; now the ground is covered with every kind of colourful leaf you can imagine. And my office is actually right below an oak tree, so while I sit and work here I hear acorns hit the roof and then roll off. When it first happened I thought, "What the hell was THAT?!" but when I was sweeping leaves on the deck, I quickly figured it out.

I'll soon post a photo of the woods: there's one section that looks exactly like that section of jungle where the gang found the Black Rock in season 1 of Lost. ;)

And that is my office. I love it! I finally FINALLY have a room of my own. I think Virginia would have been proud.

Fringe: "In Absentia"

Tonight I watched an hour of television that contained the following:

• Two men peering down a deep shaft, shot from the bottom up 
• "Written by David Fury"
• Radzinsky
• Desmond's head
• A guy in a white lab coat on a videotape that had been filmed 20 years earlier, delivering an important message that kept skipping out at vital moments. 

Oh Lost. Just when I think I've moved on, I get pulled back in and feel painfully nostalgic to rewatch the entire series. 

As You Wish...

This picture makes me SO happy.

Happy 25th anniversary, Princess Bride! It's interesting: many people are saying they're shocked that the movie is that old, where for me, it feels like it's been around forever. I was more like, "You mean there were years of my life where Princess Bride DIDN'T exist??"