Someone you're not

I just saw the very first episode of the original Star Trek series, the very very first one, before William Shatner was Kirk. It was about Christopher Pike-I actually wrote Chris Pine first before I noticed- and had Majel Barrett as Number One. She later on went to play Nurse Christine Chapel in the Star Trek series. Anyways. I found myself wishing they could have continued that particular crew's adventures. They had Spock there, but a kinder and gentler version, and they had a hyper active ensign, whose name was probably never mentioned. Pike called the doctor a dirty old man and the doctor told him drinking was the solution to a lot of problems and these aliens tried to hook Pike up with three women, and I was thinking, 'does he have to choose?' and it was pretty damn awesome considering it was from the 60s. I mean, some of the lines and actions were pretty racy for those standards. I loved the ending, how the girl got what she wanted and it turned out the aliens weren't bad, they were just trying to help the woman be happy. D'awwwww.

But anyways. I loved how Number One was shown. Considering this was the 60s and women were just beginning to come into their own rights considering equality and the such, to see Gene Roddenberry give a high ranking position to a woman, to have the captain tell her 'we need the officer with the most experience to watch out for us', to have her (and the other female officers) wearing pants, and to have even the doctor defer to her...Well..it was pretty cool. She was so authoritative without coming across as bitchy or overly compensating for something, she was able to remain in charge and in control of her emotions when the aliens were humiliating her in front of Pike. She was able to admit her mistakes and learn from them, and she was, in general, a well written female character in a show from the 60s. I didn't detect any sexism in that show. I wish they could have continued that particular show, but if they had, we wouldn't have had Kirk and Bones and all the rest I suppose. I think I'd rather have Bones than Number One, but I wish I didn't have to choose.

Cute!

In looking up Sally Jupiter cosplay, I found this cosplayer, and her friend. The friend isn't cosplaying, but the actual cosplayer wrote in her blurb that she felt her friend looked so much like Malin Ackerman that she made her take a picture with her as Laurie. I think it's so cute! I kind of want to get my bangs cut like hers now.

Also, in case I didn't mention, I recently got back from a trip to Japan, and I have a blog that I co-write with my friend, Jenna. The link is here!

I'm looking forward to the next APE con, whenever it is, I'll have to look it up and see.

I just recently finished Alison Bechdel's "Funhouse: A Family Tragicomic'. I found the beginning, and some aspects, particularly the part where she talks about her father and her reading classics to be kind of overwrought, and I found some parts of her narrative to be trying too hard, whether it was to be sentimental, or dramatic, or to prove to the reader that she'd studied her literature, but once she stopped trying to show off her classical knowledge, and focused on her story(or rather, her father's story), I found it an interesting story. I felt so bad for her father, being trapped in a marriage and a small town and a life he felt himself too big for. He was gay, and he had to hide it from everyone. It ended up alienating him from his own kids. But I liked how at the end, she explains that his failure to be himself, helped her be strong enough to be herself.

Recently I just

finished "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffery Eugenides, and watched "Bigga Than Ben' featuring Ben Barnes and Andrey Chadov. Well..Let's start.

I have this weird long relationship with 'The Virgin Suicides'. It came out when I was in middle school and I wanted to see it because I was intrigued by the title and because it starred Kirsten Dunst, who was my favorite actress at the time. I wasn't allowed to see it though and eventually forgot about it until I was in college and caught the ending of the movie on tv. I liked the way it was set up, kind of melodramatic but really poignant at the same time. I resolved to find it and watch it on dvd. I forgot about it. Then I saw the middle of the movie when it re-showed. Lather, rinse, repeat, etc. I kept seeing parts of it and kept resolving to see it all, then forgetting. Eventually I did see the whole thing, except for a couple of minutes in the beginning. So anyways, I liked the movie, but when I was told it was based on a book, I decided to go read the book. I never found that exact book but my roommate had another Jeffery Eugenides book, "Middlesex' and let me read it. I like his tone, his style of writing, its overly blown and full of attention to details, some of which is irrelevant to the story but helps to maintain a picture in the reader's head. When I look at his work critically, I think it comes across as him trying too hard to be relevant, to be thought-provoking, to be dramatic. But god, I wish I could spin a tale like him! I try not to look at his work as a critic, I enjoy his ideas and his way of getting them across. I finally found a copy of 'The Virgin Suicides' and read it. I think I like best of everything in the book, the fact that no one ever knows why they killed themselves. There's only conjectures and theories, but I find it more unsettling and more true to life to feel like the girls killed themselves for a mysterious unknowable reason. It leads the reader to think on why they did it. I think, maybe the girls killed themselves because their baby sister killed herself and they couldn't live without her, with the feeling that they could have done something, or should have done something. I don't know why Cecilia killed herself, but I felt for her the most out of the entire book. I liked her the most, and I wish she had lived longer in the book so we could get to know her better.But that was also another point of the book, was that it was written from these neighbor boys' points of views and not the girls', so we never get to know the girls at all, so we never get to understand why they did what they did. If we got to know Cecilia better, her suicide would probably make sense or its impact be lessened by our familiarity with her. I don't know. But I'm glad I got to read the book. It was one of those novels that I just couldn't put down and as soon as I finished, I just sat there thinking about what I'd just read. I sat there running the descriptions of the boys emotions in my head, and thinking about Cecilia and everything they'd said about her. What motivated her to take her life? Was it because of her that her sisters killed themselves too, or was Cecilia just the last straw? What kind of person had she been like when she was alive? Was she depressed? Was she just too dreamy for this world, like one of the characters suggested. I liked the book. It'll stay on my bookshelf for a long long time, along side the 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and that book has its own shelf.

Yeah, I love Douglas Adams's stuff that much.