World, Mostly Turning

DVD commentary for Evanesco for seraphcelene's Meta-thon.

Read the fic without commentary here.

Setting: Post-Not Fade Away
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,666 - fanfic of the devil. :-)

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Is there such a thing a facial-recognition dyslexia?

Some people say that they never forget a face. For me, it would be closer to the truth to say that I never remember one.

Which is an exaggeration, of course, but I do have a very difficult time remembering and recognizing people--even ones I've already met--unless there's something particularly unusual about them or until I've met them multiple times. I wouldn't exactly call it a handicap, but it's very inconvenient.

In 1989, I worked as a research assistant with a graduate student from Brazil. On my first day, I spent the eight straight hours more or less side-by-side with her in the field and in the lab. She had her hair up in a ponytail that day. On the second day, she came in with her hair down, and it took me many minutes before I was sure she was the same person I'd worked with the day before. I expect she wondered why I gave her so many peculiar looks before coming over to talk to her on that second day.

I myself was a grad student for about a hundred years, and I was often asked to invigilate exams for classes I had no connection with. It was commonplace for a student to have a question mid-exam, and I generally didn't know the answer, so I'd have to go and ask the professor who taught the course. The problem was that by the time I had the answer, I'd already forgotten the appearance of who asked the question. My general tactic was to wander down the row of desks that I hoped I'd just been in and scan faces until I saw someone looking at me expectantly.

When it comes to watching TV and movies--well, that's just a whole 'nother area of challenging. If they don't have familiar big-name stars, I'm kind of doomed. I think directors should make a point of having all their main characters have different hair colours or wildly different facial hair or something. I watched Steve McQueen's Bullit with my father years ago--what an evil movie! Not only did most of the main characters seem to be brunettes, but it had twins in it! Do you think I had a clue as to what was going on? I bombarded my father with so many "Who is that?" and "Is this the evil twin or the good one?" that I'm surprised he ever watched a movie with me again.

My cousin Stephanie introduced me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (S5), Angel (S2), and Nikita all in the same week many years ago. Could I tell Buffy, Darla, and Nikita (all long-haired blondes) and their male friends (all brunettes) apart, and therefore keep track of which series was which? Not a chance.

I bring this up because I watched the last six hours of Heroes Season 1 two weeks ago so I'd be ready for last night's premiere. I watched all of S1, I did. I even knew who I was looking at most of the time, really (thank you to the casting director who chose an Asian hero, a short blonde, a tall blonde, a tubby white guy, an Indian guy, a black guy, etc. etc.). I even figured out that Nathan had grown a beard.

But I did not know who was in that last scene until I read his identity on my flist today.

I don't know if there is such a thing as facial-recognition dyslexia, but if there is, I have it, and thank heavens for my LJ support group. :-)

Also? I need a Hiro icon.

At this exact moment in time, I am alone in the house. It's just me here, and Lucy lying asleep on the back of the couch behind me. And yet I can hear little feet running around overhead in the ceiling. Fast-moving little feet that sound like they have claws.

I know that the fall crazies are well upon me, but I think I have squirrels in the attic, and not just in the metaphorical sense.

Jim finally made it the end of BtVS S5. We watched the last two episodes in one evening because he couldn't wait to find out how it turned out. Before he started seeing me (and therefore before he was properly introduced to the Buffyverse), he'd only ever seen the scene from Weight of the World where Buffy was suffocating Dawn with a pillow. It's no wonder he didn't think the rest of the episode was worth sticking around for.

I don't know how he thought The Gift was going to end, but not in the way that it did. "But... but... " he exclaimed, running over to the bookshelf with all my DVDs on it. "Buffy's on the cover of Season 6. *And* Season 7! She must come back, right?"

I grinned at him and said, "Maybe Seasons 6 and 7 are Buffybot the Vampire Slayer."

::snickers::

The next day, I made him read All Set Down, my alternative ending to The Gift. He was a bit taken aback by the goriness, but thought it made as much sense as Joss's ending.

Observation of the day: There's nothing like nicking yourself while shaving your legs to make it look like Norman Bates has been in the shower with you.

I seem to have been rather silent lately, haven't I? I've been on LJ every night, lurking and smoking cigarettes under that tree on your lawn... Okay, not so much with the smoking, but I've been around. Just not saying very much.

There's been a lot going on here in the past couple of weeks, very little of which has anything to do with me in a direct sense, but which has been causing me a certain amount of stress nonetheless. So much so that I walked into a colleague's office on Thursday morning to ask her a question and wound up bursting into tears instead. I haven't quite figured out how much I'm comfortable with sharing on LJ--if it was all about me, I wouldn't mind, but it's about Jim's ex and therefore his kids, and I worry about them stumbling onto my journal someday and discovering that I've been talking about them. Maybe I'll set up a filter. I haven't really decided yet.

In happier news, I talked to my mother this morning about our trip to Italy next spring, and it turns out that we have the option of flying home from either Rome or Paris. Paris! OMG, I love Paris!! I've only been there once, and that was in December when it's not really at its best, but it's still the best place I've ever been. I could so live there. Also, Mom reauditioned for the Ottawa Choral Society (the group that's going to Italy) and got back in, so she'll be going as a singer after all. This makes her very happy. I'll still be going as just a groupie, but that's fine with me. I can wander off and do my own thing when they're in rehearsals.

Jim and I are heading up to his cottage with the boys later today and will be there for the rest of the week. I'm taking my laptop (of course) and hope to make some more progress on the next chapter of Wish You Were Here. The forecast looks pretty good, and it will be some welcome R&R after the aforementioned vaguely alluded to events. Although MiddleJim wants me to try his new wakeboard, which could be an exercise in humiliation and possibly pain. Recall that I blew a tendon while trotting after a soccer ball in the spring. I has no athleticism.

See you on the other side. Hopefully not from a hospital bed.

The last couple of times I went to see a movie, they've played a music video during the waiting time beforehand (before the 'Coming Attractions' previews). I found the song kind of catchy, but of course have forgotten both its title and the band's name. I have a vague memory that the lead singer looked a little like Mr. Universe, and the song sounded not unlike one that Queen would have done. The guy's voice even sounded kind of like Freddie Mercury's. The lead singer was leaping around in a rather ritzy house and singing to a young girl. I want to say that the chorus was something like "Why can't you love me?" but I may be making that up.

Yeah, I know, could I vague that up a little?

Does anyone have any idea what this song might be?

I just uploaded 120 userpics. Someone better be reading this!

I think I have conquered Semagic and can get it to post to all four journals (LJ, GJ, IJ, and JF) at once. Which kind of makes me feel like I should say something really significant.

.
.
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I got nothing.

Pepsi layouts. Pepsi mood theme. Pepsi virtual gifts.

Gah.

Still not sure how much I'm going to use this account, but I wanted to reserve my username. So, this is me; I'm also desoto_hia873 at LiveJournal and GreatestJournal.

::waves::