these things are connected only by the list format

[eruthros]

1. OMG, guys, Alliance finally released Once a Thief on DVD (not yet on amazon.com, but it's on amazon.ca). It's a show of my fannish youth (listen, Krycek was on it, okay), and most of it has never been available on DVD at all. I plan to buy it get it from netflix and revel in the evil clowns and the fight scene on trampolines and that time people fenced with chainsaws and the general John Woo-ishness of it. *points up at icon of Li Ann with two guns* Look she jumps sideways out from behind pallets of stuff to fire two guns at evil clowns. How can I not like that!

Also, if any of y'all know of any good Li Ann/the Director fic, plz send it thisaway. Or the Director/Mac d/s fic would also be welcomed.

2. I really hate having conversations with people who assume that if I don't like something, it must be because I don't get it, and if they just explain then eventually I'll go "oh gosh, you know, my visceral negative reaction and/or my political objections have now totally vanished! I'll go and draw sparkly hearts around it now!"

I mean, obviously people like different things than I do for a variety of reasons, and obviously people can disagree with me about whether something is problematic. But, oh my god, if I could stop talking to people who assume that it's because I just didn't understand the underlying message and if I understood everyone's intent then I would just love it and and and...

3. I have had no success googling this and my physical therapist is an asshole, so I turn to you, the internet! One strange thing that has started happening to me lately is this: I lean over forward to reach the ground, with my knees bent slightly, and I spend some time that way, pulling weeds or picking stuff up off the floor, and within a minute or two my legs go immediately and critically wobbly. And then if I stand up, which is always really difficult, my legs are weak and shaky, and it can last for hours. Hours in which I basically can't stand and have to lever myself up out of chairs and use my cane or hold onto things because I'm dangerously unsupported.

I asked my PT a while ago if this was a particularly weak or stressed muscle somewhere I should be working on or if it was some other kind of problem and she was like "whatever, people's bodies change sometimes, keep doing your core strengthening exercises." But it feels like somewhat more of a problem than that! Especially because it's newish in the last year and because I've been doing those exercises and incidentally my core strength is fine and because my knees are already hypermobile so with the added instability I really do have problems walking and standing. But I know nothing about soft-tissue structures, so: does anybody know what the hell is going wrong there?

4. Man, sometimes I want to make the "take JMS's heavy-handedness out" cut of Babylon 5. Like, every time he does a scene twice, to make sure we get the emotions of it (*cough* finale *cough*)? Take out one of the scenes. Every time there's that extra scene at the end of an episode even though the emotional resolution clearly happened with (usually) G'Kar's or (sometimes) Londo or Delenn's amazing and brilliant scene? Take it out. I don't need to see the captain reflecting on G'Kar or Londo or Delenn or whoever's amazing plot in order to get it, guys, I don't need jms's stand-in to tell me how to feel, because, you know, other people are having amazing scenes and acting brilliantly in them? And I feel things for them?

I mean, we just watched "Passing Through Gethsemane," which - spoiler-free version! - involves the same character explaining the story of Gethsemane twice. To make sure we get the metaphor. It's relevant to his life situation, guys! FYI! And it's already the title, jms, so you seriously don't need one of those two scenes.

I love the show in a lot of ways, but geez.

Comments

[aria]

In my head there is this beautiful, ideal Babylon 5, where the heavy-handness is gone, certain people get to actually complete their arcs without any Evil Dead Lesbians, seasons four and five are properly paced, and the effects are all BSG-and-Firefly levels of good, because I might as well imagine that it's also a show that's beautiful to vid. Yep.

[eruthros]

Yes! The Babylon 5 in my head is such an amazing show. Every time I rewatch it I am startled by how bad the cgi is (even though I say to myself, well, the cgi is bad) and by the heavy-handed bits and etc.

[stewardess]

In the position you describe, my guess is your airflow is restricted, and you are taking shallow breaths, essentially hyperventilating.

[eruthros]

Intriguing! I will try to pay attention to that the next time I'm in that position. I kept thinking it was something leg-specific since my arms didn't feel heavy or anything, but bodies are weird :)

[stewardess]

Many things can compound the effect: slight dehydration, heat, low blood pressure, your position affecting circulation. Check out "locked knees" for some wildly differing opinons. :D When I've experienced this, heat was always a factor.

[delphi]

Regarding Item 1: Oh my gosh, yay! Once a Thief was the first fandom I wrote in when I was a wee little thing.

[eruthros]

Awww, yay! I'm glad it'll be around for you (and me!) to rewatch nostalgically :)

[sineala]

EEEEE OMG ONCE A THIEF I NEED THAT.

[eruthros]

I KNOW RIGHT?

Also your icon is great.

[sineala]

Apparently I saved my old icons for this very day!

[avendya]

Re. PT thing: will ask my mother on your behalf! (My mother is an occupational therapist, and while the-clinic-she-owns-and-runs does not currently have PT on staff, it has in the past and likely will in the future.)

Re. B5: for all this has been the right show at the right time for me, there are so many things I would redo to make Ideal B5. I have a feeling that I will not like JMS when I finish the show and get a chance to rewatch it, instead of eating seasons in a week while not sleeping.

[eruthros]

Oh, cool! Thanks!

I wanted to see an OT, actually, because the PTs I've seen have all had this sort of "making you better" mindset, where it seems like they deal more with injury than chronic problems. And at first I was willing to believe them, that if I just kept doing the exercises X would get better and Y would get better and the exercises themselves would stop hurting and ... But, like, three years into doing PT it had done nothing but hurt me and they kept going "well, you must not be doing the exercises enough," and none of the PTs I saw could answer questions for me like "I have trouble holding cutlery - how can I change how I do that?" But my insurance doesn't cover seeing an occupational therapist, so instead I have googled a lot to find things out. (And my PTs are still like "no, seriously, eventually these exercises will stop hurting! eventually! we promise!")

Re: B5, that is sort of how I feel about it!

[chagrined]

WORD. Just, this has been my experience with PTs vs. OTs also. The PTs I have had: some were somewhat useful, but none "got it," and many were mostly useless or occasionally harmful. The two OTs I've had ACTUALLY GOT IT and taught me USEFUL THINGS and one of them was the one who suggested I look into an EDS diagnosis and referred me to the rheumatologist who finally helped me get that, so, woo. Ugh sorry your insurance sucks. :( :(

[copracat]

OMG, guys, Alliance finally released Once a Thief on DVD

\0/ \0/ \0/

[eruthros]

Agreeeeeeee!

[sasha_feather]

Re #2: Maybe if you try really hard, you will want to sleep with men too! /sarcasm.

[eruthros]

I bet it could happen! *eyeroll*

[meloukhia]

Rraragh 'splainers. I don't get why people do that either; oddly enough having something 'splained to me repeatedly actually tends to make me hate it (and all its fans) even more.

[eruthros]

Seriously! The one I hate most is when someone tells me how the creator intends me to take the show/book/fic/movie/etc, and then expects me to then shift my reaction to it to the way I would have reacted to the intention itself - NARGH. That's not the show/book/fic/movie/etc I saw! And I won't have seen that show/book/fic/movie/etc no matter how much you tell me I should have! Like, I had a friend who didn't like Buffy, and thought that it played problematically with the horror tropes and sexualized violence, and saying "oh, but [Joss Whedon quote]" would not have made her any happier with the show.

[meloukhia]

Right? I mean, Joss Whedon has that whole quote on the commentary for the episode where Angel loses his soul about how he wanted to poke at the trope of helpless girls and talk about sexuality and how it changes people and blah blah blah and I still don't like the fact that Buffy is basically punished for having sex (and is punished repeatedly throughout the series, for that matter). (And I'm a fan of the show!)

It's the, I think of it as this fierce need to be right; people really need to feel like they are 'right' especially on matters like this where they don't want to feel bad because some people identify Issues with the media they love. So their response is to dismiss the commentary and make it smaller so they can still feel good about being fans of [whatever]. Which is why I loathe most other Joss fans because apparently enjoying his work requires viewing it uncritically.