I felt like all my time management efforts fell by the wayside yesterday because I did a lot of goofing off, but then I also accomplished everything on a long to-do list. I had to remind myself that the point of all the time management was to get things done and still have time for fun. It was a "rest" day on the book before I start serious proofreading today, and while I do plan to plunge right into the next project after I send this to my agent, one day isn't enough for switching mental gears, so fun was allowed.
We're currently dealing with the potential of a looming storm. Ike is headed our way, and it is highly likely that we'll get at least a lot of wind and rain by the time it makes it this far inland, but it's still too early to tell what the extent of it will be because they won't know the exact track of where it will go until it makes landfall. That means they can't even give us a reliable weekend weather forecast. Tornadoes are scary, but at least they hit and get it over with. All these days and days of waiting and knowing that something will happen, but you aren't sure exactly what, where, and when, start to wear on you -- and I'm not even anywhere near the coast. I don't think I could deal with the stress of living on the coast. They have mentioned potential for power outages, and considering the power in my neighborhood used to go out just for cloudy days (it has been better in the past few years), I guess I'd better be prepared for that. If I don't post Monday, it could be because I have no electricity. I do have a laptop, but the battery doesn't hold much of a charge these days, and the DSL modem does require power.
In other news, the fall TV season is trickling in. I watched Fringe Tuesday night, and I think I'll be giving it a shot, but I'm certainly not in love with it yet. To be totally honest, I'm mostly there for Mark Valley, and then he was mostly out of the picture, and when he was in the picture, they ruined the pretty. He's one of the few actors where I find the actor himself more interesting than any characters he's played. I guess I imprinted on the idea of military men at an early age, so I can't seem to resist a West Pointer war veteran. In a TV universe where most characters are more unrealistically badass than their real-life counterparts would be, I like the idea of an actor who in real life may be more badass than the characters he plays. I think my main lack of enthusiasm for this show may be because I am so beyond over the government/corporate conspiracy theory stuff. Not that I object to it, I've just seen it a few too many times. It seems like when they need a little extra conflict in a series, they throw in a conspiracy. Even in shows where they are the conspiracy, where they're the ones keeping secrets, they'll suddenly run into a bigger, deeper conspiracy. I'm not sure what it says about my mentality that I generally enjoy it more when Our Heroes are the ones having to keep major secrets from the rest of the world than when they're the ones trying to uncover the secrets and unravel the conspiracy. I guess I prefer the idea of being in the know to the frustration of cover-ups and dead ends.
Speaking of keeping secrets, that brings me to my other recent discovery, and I'm almost ashamed to admit this one because I know it's not that good, but heaven help me, I'm enjoying the heck out of it. It's Primeval on BBC America. That's a channel I only get OnDemand, and last weekend I decided to create my own Sci Fi Friday, since the Sci Fi Channel is just down to Atlantis, so I pulled up the first episode of Primeval from OnDemand, and I got strangely hooked. On Sunday afternoon, I marathoned all the episodes they had posted to OnDemand and waited impatiently for the new one on Monday. When one didn't come up and when I discovered that they were two episodes behind, I found them through (ahem) other means. And once I found them there, I couldn't help but watch the next couple of episodes after that. I guess the best way to describe it is a weird mix between an inverse of Stargate and Jurassic Park -- anomalies from other times (and maybe places?) are opening into our world, but instead of going through them to explore, Our Heroes are mostly concerned with the stuff that wanders through into our world. Namely, dinosaurs and other extinct and very dangerous beasties. And Our Heroes have to protect the world from the creatures while keeping the secret and trying to solve the mystery of the time anomalies.
Basically, it's a weekly series version of Sci Fi Channel Saturday night movies, but I don't feel quite so embarrassed for the actors. It's utterly silly and I can't even begin to explain what I like about it, but I think two words sum up the appeal for me: zombie dodos. Seriously. Plus, there is some good eye candy, with a few nicely attractive men doing manly things, and one of them is pretty much my ideal physical type (and the actor is one I've swooned over in a Masterpiece Theater costume drama). They pulled a twist at the end of the first season (which will be the middle of the season for BBCA, as they're showing the first two seasons as one long season) that could be either utterly brilliant or incredibly sloppy, and I'm not sure which yet (and if it was deliberate and as brilliant as I hope, I'm now trying to find a way to pull it off in a novel). I might even be tempted to get the DVD set for pure cheesy fun.
Now to spend the day reading the first 70 pages of The New Project out loud to myself so I can make sure it flows.
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