Periodic pondering

[calissa]

It has been ages since I last did one of these, so I thought it was time I revisited.

Doing: I've mostly been concentrating on editing. However, I managed to attend the Aurealis Awards on Saturday and had a lovely brunch with friends on Sunday. Tomorrow night I'm off to see Bell Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Watching: I seem to be going through a phase of watching shows. I recently caught up on Forever (Ioan Gruffudd *swoon*) and Agent Carter (only eight episodes? Come on!) and am currently making my way through season 2 of Agents of SHIELD.

Reading: This has finally slowed up, probably thanks to the influx of editing work. However, I just started Kaleidoscope edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios. It's an anthology of YA speculative fiction with a focus on diversity.

Wondering: The most recent batch of editing has highlighted for me how dreadful I am at the whole work/life balance thing. Being a freelancer means I work when there is work. However, I need a healthier way of doing that rather than working myself into the ground. Still wondering just how to do that.

Writing: I've not had much energy leftover for writing and so have been concentrating on poetry, using the excuse that April is Poetry Month. I've written so much of it lately that I think I'm starting to improve, which makes me happy.

Drinking: I'm making my way through a lovely batch of French Earl Grey that a friend brought me back from Thailand as a souvenir. With the mornings getting colder, I really need to pick up some Russian Caravan soon.

Comments

[alee_grrl]

I love both Forever and Agent Carter. 8 episodes was far to few of Agent Carter. I keep hoping we'll get a second season, because that would be awesome. Agents of SHIELD has been enjoyable this season.

I've been catching up on movies that I had intended to watch but hadn't quite gotten around to. So far I've seen At World's End, Big Hero 6, Interstellar, and Pride. They've all been enjoyable and thought-provoking, well Big Hero 6 was more fluff than thought-provoking but was still very enjoyable.

Work/life balance is a very hard thing, especially for freelancers. I don't have many tips yet, but send hugs and good thoughts.

[calissa]

They did such a fantastic job with the character of Peggy Carter. I really hope they don't let her go to waste.

It has been ages since I went to the movies that I wouldn't even know where to start catching up. Was there anything you especially enjoyed?

*hugs* Thank you! I hope you are managing the balance better than I am at the moment.

[alee_grrl]

I don't go to the movies very often either and tend to just wait for things to hit Netflix streaming. However there have been more movies that I wanted to watch or re-watch that aren't available for streaming so I decided to trial the Netflix dvd rental. Vegging out has been how I've been recovering from the exhaustion that the move triggered. :) I enjoyed all of the movies that I watched, but the ones I enjoyed the most and will likely end up purchasing are Big Hero 6 and Pride.

Big Hero 6 came out last fall and is recently out on dvd. If you need a good heart-warming, fluffy superhero movie then this is a great choice. I watched it twice before I returned it. It's an animated superhero film taking place in a futuristic amalgam of a city called San Fransokyo and is largely a coming of age/origin story. It helps that I really strongly identified with Baymax, the large, rather cuddly nurse robot.

Pride was absolutely fabulous. It is a dramatization of a very surprising alliance that happened during the 1984 UK coal strike. A group of LGBT activists raise money to support striking miner's families, and eventually end up building a really powerful set of friendships between the London based group and a small mining village in South Wales. The cast is phenomenal, and the story is powerful and uplifting. I'd highly recommend it.

The other movies were enjoyable and I might end up re-watching them at some point. At World's End is the third of Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's cornetto trilogy (the first being Shaun of the Dead and the second being Hot Fuzz). Of course these three are only loosely a trilogy. Each movie stands completely on its own plot wise with no crossover in characters or locals. The trilogy is more about connecting thematic ties and character tropes than a connected plot line. All three movies are fun and provide great meta on each of the themes, often turning tropes on their head a bit. Shaun of the Dead is a zombie rom-com, Hot Fuzz is a play on the buddy cop movie trope, and At World's End is a combination high school friends reunion meets aliens. There is some gore, but less than most movies these days. There are also some very serious threads running under all the comedy, which may be why I like the movies so much. Hot Fuzz is one of my absolute favorites to re-watch.

I enjoyed Interstellar largely because it reminded me strongly of my dad. It's a gorgeous scifi epic with a lot of father-daughter themes. I had some knit-picking about some of the science, but enjoyed the movie despite all that.

[calissa]

Moving (and especially so far) is a pretty exhausting business so I'm glad you've been allowing yourself the opportunity to unwind.

I could definitely use a good heart-warming fluffy superhero movie, so will keep my eye out for Big Hero 6.

My sister is a big fan of the cornetto trilogy, so I don't know why At World's End hasn't stuck in my mind. I saw Hot Fuzz when it came out at the movies and rather enjoyed it but Shaun of the Dead wasn't really my style. Perhaps I need to give At World's End a try to see where it falls in the spectrum.

Thanks for sharing the recs!

[alee_grrl]

It was fun typing up my thoughts about the movies. At World's End was a little more like Shaun of the Dead than Hot Fuzz style-wise, in my opinion, but had some fun aspects that I wasn't expecting (Nick Frost's character being the super-competent one was kind of fun) and Martin Freeman had a bit more of a role than he did in the other two.

[onewhitecrow]

Maybe take a walk at the end of your 'working' day to reset your brain between it and your 'generally existing' day? I'm pretty rubbish at it myself, but having a definite hour to clock off at then some compulsory outside time to get to where food is is probably why I'm not more of a mess.

[eye caught on comment above] You've not seen Hot Fuzz? You would like that, I think.

[calissa]

Having a definite hour to clock off would be very wise. I'm very good at making sure I eat but I tend to gravitate back to work afterwards. Perhaps switching my computer off before making dinner would help.

I have seen Hot Fuzz and found it rather amusing. Shaun of the Dead is not really my style, though, so I have tended to steer away from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Perhaps I need to reconsider.

[onewhitecrow]

No! No working after food...then you might go all night. I think that is a good idea, to switch it off a bit.

Eh, Hot Fuzz was the only one I found particularly funny, too.

[calissa]

The risk of me going all night is pretty low because I generally turn into a zombie after 9PM. However, that doesn't negate your point about needing to switch off.