Before & After & Inbetween

I must admit I liked the original startrek. I also liked some of the settings of the later series (DS-9, Voyager), but I also never truly bothered to follow the series (chronologically or complete), because I got ultimately bored after a dozen eps or so, when nothing of the potential conflict in the setup between characters and surrounding was even remotely addressed or put to use.
The same goes actually for many of the sciencefiction series brought to tv or cinema in the last twenty years. Get me right: I *love* StarWars IV (and its potential), but that was *before* the rest of the saga; I love Eureka with its all nonsense take on scientists, and a few more (notably the original Battlestar Galactica and Bab-5, but again, "it's the setting, stupid." (to misquote Bill Clinton)).

However, when was the last time you saw a believe scientific and social different world set up on tv? The only thing I can spontaneously come up with is StarGate for a series, and even there it's mostly the original seasons with the earlier being the better, the Atlantis part lost most (if not all and then some) of its flavor, and Blade Runner as a movie.

SF author Charles Stross posted about the shortcomings of sciencefiction shows and movies in his online diary that brings these issues to a very clear point in terms of scientific and social world building for spellbinding scifi stories. His example is Startrek:TNG, and even if you don't agree with me (or like TNG to death), have a look at the quoted script excerpt for one of its eps, before the technical helpers filled in the gaps. It's a thought-provoking read.

current chapter word count: 6862
scribbled changes applied today: changed breakfast scene
completed? unfortunately not
because Seishiro is uncooperative
quote of the day: "I feel out of place among all the gifted onmyoji there."

unrelated note: from the category of "unnecessary nuisances":

Dear Samsung laptop designers. Please abstain from moving CTRL and FN keys around on your keyboards! It is a nuisance that the CTRL key on the Q45 is on the FN key of the R560 and vice versa! Keys moving around like Dr. Kimble on the run make using two different machines regularly quite cumbersome. Thank you.

current chapter word count: 6508
because of severe tinkering in the waking up
because of extinguished reverence lights
because of scented oil
because who *is* Seishiro's kami, after all!?!!
scene to be worked on next: Seishiro & Ameru
because there are new data on kamidana & rituals that call for an improvement of said scene
research of the day: Style-trucks in Japan: Dekotora (here are pics)
research used? no, but the things look cool!
quote of the day: He considered it -- *Her* -- and used a whiff of his power...

Unrelated: I hate waiting for delivery nearing christmas. My laptop was scheduled to arrive on Friday before 19:00. Around 21:00 on Friday they changed the scheduled delivery date to Monday. Christmas-time-service-sucks!

This list is incomplete and partially bordering on a rant, though it wasn't intended as one when I started it.
( Eight things that put me off a fanfic )

Open letter to fashion labels - more specifically: jeans labels.

( cut for your anti-ranting-convenience )

Firstly, I've got an Aunt in the US (about 60-years-old, widowed, and fond of cats and kitchens).
Secondly, said Aunt got herself a shiny new kitchen (and adopted a cute li'l kitten recently), both of which was talked about extensively on the phone and she promised to send pictures.
Thirdly, she did.
( Then the ridicule started... )

No comment.
And I need an icon expressing equally contempt and utter disbelief...

...can you imagine that there's a certain reason behind most construction companies trying to finish their building projects in Germany by the end of September?
...can you further imagine that said reason might be related to the fact that it is rather uncommon here to replace apartment windows at the end of December?
...would it surprise you to learn that said reason is commonly called F.R.O.S.T. (and that I don't mean L.K. Hamilton's Sidhe warrior by it)?

Therefore, allow me to put it all into simpler words:

You freeze your arse off when your flat has no windows for several hours in December!

Thank you very much, you rectum!

Some of you who visit this journal from time to time might remember about its beginnings as the forum of the I want T-DSL on my phoneline-Daily Soap (for those who are still innocent and wonder what that's all about: see here).

Update. C-O-N-N-E-C-T-E-D

as in: DSL works. *WOOOOT* It took them only about... (quick count) half a year, most of which spent in hotlines confirming me simultaneously that my DSL was all peachy while I don't have DSL but that I had DSL (which I hadn't).

Now... they still have to activate my flatrate; currently it's still the dial-up 120 minutes per month thingy...

...let's be surprised in which way they garble that up!

and now for a special commercial of the "I want DSL by TO on my phoneline"-daily soap.

October 20

I get my phonebill today - and what do I find? TO billed me for having DSL1000 during the last month. Cute!
I called TOSH (yet again) because
a) I did not order DSL1000 but DSL2000
b) I do not have access to any form of DSL on my phoneline as of yet
c) I won't pay for something I didn't receive
d) TOS #3 insisted last time, the issue would be cleared up soon. Soon was on September 29.
TOSH #9 insisted that DSL1000 has been cancelled, apologized for the wrong amount on my bill, and proceeded to put the money back onto my account. *ok*
TOSH #9 then insisted that they would not have an order for DSL2000! Please!? They only sent me the hardware, the software, the hardcopy manual, 1001 ads for online services requiring fastest access...
TOSH #9 actually lived long enough to rectify his insistment towards they have an order to put DSL2000 on my phoneline. He then proceeded to assure me that the issue would be taken care of asap.
I might have been inclined to believe him...
...back on July 27!

September 29
I get an email from TO telling me that they would regret my cancellation of their order. I did not cancel anything!
I call TOSH. TOSH tells me that the order was cancelled because there would be DSL from somebody else on my line. I tell TOSH that that is the fragment from the cancelled order from July 27th. She sorts through puts me through to her superior. TOS. TOS #3 frisks through all her data, let's me tell her -yet again- that I did call TC already, that I told TC that the DSL1000 on my line is not to be there, and that TC does not believe me when I - as the client - tell them that it is to be cancelled and insist that their partner is TO not me, therefore I'd have to talk with TO. TO says there is no DSL from them on my line. I tell TOS #3 in detail, she is pretty embarassed and proceeds to clear the line internally which may - her words - take a few days and that they would get to me about it.
Do you believe that? I don't!

Vocally speechless!