(no subject)

[raven]

Whoever gave me the Dreamwidth points, a belated thank you! It was very kind of you to think of me.

I keep opening this window and writing nothing in it. Still here, I guess. Having very mixed feelings about things, esp. the covid vaccine (today was the first time someone I know personally was vaccinated!). It's great news, but, uh.

Anyway. to stop this being completely contentless, here is a 2019 Guardian long read I thought was pretty amazing: 'A body drifted past the window': surviving the Ladbroke Grove train crash. What makes the piece particularly incredible to me is that the writer was both the principal lawyer to the post-accident inquiry and one of the victims of the crash. He writes about how he knew from the witness statements the sort of PTSD symptoms the victims were experiencing, and he just went on with the inquiry work and waited for it to start happening to him. It's harrowing but brilliantly written. (nb. the article has content warnings at the top)

Generally, I think the story of Ladbroke Grove is compelling partly because of the crash itself, and partly because it's a story with a happy ending: twenty years on, this is the safest railway in the world, simply because the Cullen inquiry made recommendations and those recommendations were implemented. idk why, but in these terrible times I like being reminded that things can be very bad and then get better.

What else? I'm about to finish rewatching DS9 again (what did you do in 2020, Iona? Well, among other things, I watched about 200 episodes of Star Trek), I'm very obsessed with MUNA right now (I've listened to this track maybe fifty times this week), I am trying to write a story about dragons.

Comments

[philomytha]

I'm rewatching DS9 too, it's excellent escapism and God knows escapism is much needed lately. I've only watched it once before, more than ten years ago, so I keep coming across episodes I either genuinely haven't seen or have completely forgotten. I've been appreciating Quark more this time around, Little Green Men was a stand-out of recent watching. And if anything I love Kira even more this time around.

[raven]

Ahhh same! I adore it but haven’t done a whole rewatch in about the same length of time and it’s so good and warm and aggravatingly vital and relevant! A had seen random episodes over the years but never all of them and he decided he wanted to see all the Ferengi ones, so we had Bar Association and The House of Quark and Little Green Men all in a row which was a great time. I don’t know why I’m surprised every time when some random object or animal turns out to be Odo. :)

How are you, if you want to say? I’ve been thinking of you and hoping you’re doing ok!

[philomytha]

Well, we've just finished two weeks of isolation because Cub's school bubble burst. I'm getting better at my primary school teacher impression, but it's a massive relief today that he can go play outside with the neighbours' kids again. Everything else is about the same only more so.