Fannish Argosies

Connecting flight was late, then we got sent back to the gate because a fuel pump failed. Waiting now while they fix it. Was supposed to have landed by now.

Hoping to get to Durham sometime before dinner.

*wastes time on Tumblr some more*

I had meant to type up thoughts all sorts of things this week, including long overdue thoughts about the S4 Merlin finale, but it's taking longer than usual thanks to some kitchen stupidity I engaged in last weekend.

The good: two new kitchen knives, actual decent ones to replace the utterly useless ones I was gifted with by family as a starting out sort of thing. I'm starting to replace several of those types of things with quality items instead now that I'm branching out more with cooking. Hurrah for restaurant/chef supply stores.

The bad: the 8-inch chef knife doesn't fit in my old knife block. I stuck it in there anyway as a short-term thing until I could go buy something more suitable, but was dumb and let the edge face outward. I realized a bit of it stuck up out of the block, but I figured I could be careful enough for a few days.

The worse: Nope, I couldn't. My knife block has side compartments for utensils, and when I went to pick one up it had gotten stuck a bit in the wire frame. I tugged on it to pull it out, and when it finally jerked free my hand flew up and sliced right up the edge of the exposed knife. Didn't even realize it at first and thought I'd just hit it on something, and then of course there was all the lovely blood.

So, yes, typing with a splinted pointer finger. I didn't feel it was bad enough to go to the ER over, but the slice is a bit deep and right over the middle knuckle and I've seen what can happen when that isn't allowed to heal properly (my father did this one and went to use the hand anyway, then promptly tore the tendon he'd nicked, which meant microsurgery rather than a bandage and time). So I have a butterfly bandage and a homemade splint fashioned out of some cardboard and it seems to be doing the trick so the cut can heal without tearing open every time the finger bends. It's damned annoying doing just about everything, though, especially typing.

Since doing everything is now so annoying, I've spent most of the weeknights and this weekend discovering new fannish loves. I'm highly enjoying Once Upon a Time - so, SO nice to have a fantasy series to watch again! Especially while Merlin is in hiatus and MLP is being tainted by ablism fail.

After ages of hearing about it, I finally tried out Downton Abbey three days ago and since that time have totally mainlined both seasons and the Christmas special. It has its issues (the first few eps really gave me pause as to what sort of message the show would be peddling), but I still seem to be hooked. The cast is excellent, the costumes utterly gorgeous, and the soapish elements quite addicting. Plus there's Dame Maggie being brilliant as usual, with Penelope Wilton right alongside. I've enjoyed Michelle Dockery since Hogfather, so it's wonderful to see her shine in such a complex role. With such a large main cast, there are so many women and they're all so different, and most eps have passed the Bechdel Test with flying colors.

I do have a few criticisms; as usual with period dramas, the diversity of the cast is just about nonexistent, and the one gay member of the main cast is a rather slimy antagonist. One of the forefront underlying plot lines is very questionable indeed regarding the misogyny of it all. It feels very predictable at times, in both good and bad ways. Some inaccuracies and anachronisms, but also some nice attention to detail. It feels like a guilty pleasure, tbh.

Strangely enough, I have a het OTP for both series, a rarity for me. I usually don't care for the main pairing of any show (Farscape being a rare exception), but am shipping both Snow/Charming (not Mary Margaret/David, though) and Mary/Matthew like burning, especially the latter. Is anyone else watching either of these? Thoughts?

Okay, now that the Dragon*Con store is back up, I'm kind of annoyed.

On the Monday of the con this year I went over to the Sheraton to buy next year's membership. Was told that even though the con booklet advertised registration open until 5, some brilliant person had scheduled the computers to be picked up at 2, so they closed way early. Okay, annoying, but the store in the Marriott was still open, so I headed there. Only to find a huge line. We were told that the $50 price would be good online until October 1st, so not to worry if we didn't have time to stay in line. By that time, I'd gotten a call that one of our group was leaving so I left the line to say goodbye and do other things instead.

Evidently the staff at the store were either lying or completely misinformed.

Online price is $60, good until Nov. 13th. Am not happy about that. Might be only 10 bucks, but if I'd known the price would go up, I'd have gone back to get in line that Monday.

Have sent the D*C store people an email, but haven't heard back. That was a week or so ago, so I'm not holding my breath on it.