Firefly (continued)

My first comment, on seeing Serenity (the BDM, not the pilot) with Claire and Excitable James, was: "That was such fun." Because it was. It was funny and sharp and had lots of cool CGI and shaky handheld stuff. And, as I said at the time at length, the hero's name is Malcolm.

But I can now see why the cancellation of the TV series pissed so many people off. When it's being done for genre and character development rather than fun, it's extraordinary. The end of the series seems so lopped-off it's ridiculous. I stil think the two best characters are Mal and River, who are both so beautifully realised, and they and all the others could have sustained a proper television show with such ease. And as well as the epic character stuff, there's typically Joss Whedon silly stuff, like Mal and Jayne having girls' names and the random Cockney accents and the Chinese and the Crazy Space Incest (ohgod, the deleted scenes. The deleted scenes, people.)

(A brief question: do the characters know they're speaking two languages? Or have Chinese and English been used together to the point that they don't know they were once separate?)

( War Stories, Trash, The Message, Heart of Gold, Objects In Space )

In short, I've really liked this show. I maintain it's much better than Buffy or Angel. And I now see why people watching Buffy season seven found Caleb so horrifying!

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*I've been writing about Mill all day. I now think in footnotes.

Fifth-week blues

The JCR hustings are tonight. They began at six and are expected to go on until three or four, with shouts, heckling and shameless democracy all the way to the bitter end. JCR stands for "junior common room", and refers to the people as well as the actual room; every Michaelmas the JCR committee are replaced en masse, hence the elections and hustings. I would have absolutely loved to stand for something, but I know I can't and shouldn't. I had a meeting with Adam Swift, my personal tutor, who is a nice man if a little difficult to talk to. He's terribly stiff, but means well, and was nice enough to arrange the meeting despite the fact he's the tutor for admissions and is therefore swamped. He asked me how I was getting on and suchlike, but only grew really animated when praising my decision not to run for office this year. "You're a first-year PPEist!" he said. "Wise choice."

And so it is; when I am no longer a first-year PPEist, I shall run, probably for Women's, LGB or Ethnic Minorities, or maybe VP if I feel up to it. That said, Sky is running for Ethnic Minorities this year, and I wanted to hear his husting. At six o'clock, they began, in alphabetical order, with the Academic Affairs Officer. At nine o'clock they were up to Charities. It's gonna be a loooong night. (Last one's up is Doctor Who - the manifesto reads "Vote for me for JCR Time Lord!")

Still, Balliol's JCR is the most democratic in the university, and they're all gearing up for changeover and admissions at the end of Michaelmas. Tallking of the end of Michaelmas, I can't believe it's so close. This is sixth week, and we're all getting a little tired. My miniature crack-up two weeks ago is apparently a documented phenomenon - lots of people have complained of "fifth-week blues". My workload is its usual ridiculous self. I've done my Mill and Politics for the week, but it all begins again with Maths from tomorrow. Sigh.

Ah, well. There is good stuff in the world. I'm hosting the Staircase 22 Poker Night tomorrow - it's a private party, not an advertised event, but even so a lot of people seem to be coming. With this in mind, I went to Sainsbury's this afternoon after a Politics tute to get the various items on my shopping list. There were eight items on it, and six of them had run out. In a fit of pique, I went to Westgate. Which is not that far, and I was back in time for the hustings.

There is in fact a reason I am making this entry, despite its utter banality up to this point, and that is to quietly document the fact that I am sort of, kind of writing fanfiction again. I hadn't written a word of it since I finished off my last fic, which was, I believe, Dancing For Beginners. I am, however, attempting a gentle foray into Firefly fic. I am a bad person, but I want to; I get the feeling there's only one Firefly fic I'll ever want to write, and it's the one I'm embroiled in at the moment. There is surprisingly little Mal-centric fic out there.

(Also, I want more of an excuse to use this icon.)

Yes, to sum up my life: philosophy, poker, and Michaelmas. Fic's all that was missing. And of course, the cold weather; the proper, bitter chill has kicked in and I'm loving every minute of it.

And now, to bed.