gang aft agley

this is all a bit late, but...

it was all good fun, but looking back i can't help but feel a bit disappointed with the way things went down at the SF writers' forum at New Worlds 5. admittedly, i wasn't very much help--hell, i suppose that's an understatement--but as soon as it started, it was evident that the forum would be embroiled in the same things writers back home tend to find themselves wallowing in all the time anyway, which has a lot to do with wading through definitions. to be fair, again, it really was fun, and rather educational, too, particularly with the arrival of U.P. Prof Emil Flores, but i can't help but feel the couple hours spent wrassling (or trying to wrassle) the concept of 'SF' down could have been spent in other ways.

this was New Worlds 5, after all. if we're still wading through definitions now, what were the last 4 about?

the SF enthusiast in me can't help but think we could have had a much more fruitful discussion with issues like 'who would win in a fight--the Daleks or the Borg?', or 'what's the best way to travel through Time and Space?', or, perhaps a little more currentsy, 'what would happen if Sylar met a Cylon? or the Doctor?' and 'what would Mr Bennett do about it?'

the forum, however, did stay clear of the much overdone 'what is Filipino SF?'

and still, i'm glad i got to be there.

Q's comments on publishing stuff that take a decidedly Borgesian approach to fiction back home had me shaking my head though. mainly because i knew he was absolutely right.

*

i'm currently contemplating starting up the other life again, if only to complain about how Alison MacLeod's The Wave Theory of Angels puts my pitiful attempt at a novel to shame.

so it's back to the drawing board with spukhafte ferwirkungen, Sehnsucht, vom Geist der Schwere. sigh.

*

i can't remember if i watched The Crow last Halloween (i.e., 'ween 2006)--a little ritual i started for myself back in med school--but i definitely didn't this year. i'm a little put out for not having done anything Halloweenish this year--though i did attend a Halloween party with my friends from my first job as Sylar (that's 'dressed up as Sylar for the party' and not 'my first job when i was working as Sylar'. i was feeling lazy.) and i did wear my Jack-Skellington-heads tie to work on the 31st.

but i must be growing old. i don't really mind as much as i'm bitching.

what really got to me Halloween night was finding out they jazzed-up The Daily Show website, currently running on Beta, and now i can't watch any of the vids. grumble grumble.

yes, i am getting old.

*

the big thing for me thing i hinted at a couple posts back is shaping up into something. but i'd rather not give it away until i'm absolutely sure it's happening. fingers crossed things don't go gang aft agley.


latest thing on the spinner: Wildlife, Pupil.

enjoyed, during my vacation: Matthew Vaughn's Stardust, finding a copy of Lawrence Durrel's Alexandria Quartet, not having to work, and [cheese alert] being with Mabel a lot.
did *not* enjoy: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. dammit, even Chris Eccleston sucked in that movie. sorry, Mr Eccleston.


am very uncertain about Heroes 2. only the Noah Bennett/Mohinder and Parkman/Parkman/Walker plot threads have any real hold on me, and Nathan Petrelli does seem a more interesting character this season, but am really getting tired of all that 'holy crap i have superpowers! what's it all mean?!?' malarkey, which i was never too keen on--despite being ostensibly necessary back then--with the first season anyway.

the ordinary folks continue to be more engaging as characters than the allegedly 'more evolved' types.

right. i'm off to either Wave Theory or the Inland Empire DVD extras. i haven't decided yet.