7 Quick Takes: Just Checking In

Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting the Quick Takes and giving this blog some structure.

1.

So, life’s been kind of crazy.  There have been curveballs these last couple of weeks.  When isn’t that the case?  For whatever reason, these more recent curves have seemed more overwhelming.  I won’t get into the depressing details, but I think a lot of my perception comes down to the heavy self-analysis I’ve been doing lately.

Is that just another way of saying I’m being neurotic?  Eh, who knows.

2.

I think that first take was really a way of introducing the fact that I’m declaring a redo on my New Year’s Resolutions.  I have, in the past, made something of a to-do about the antagonistic relationship I have with the month of February, but I find myself oddly relieved at its arrival here in 2013.  I have decided that the first of February is a much better start date than the first of the year.  In fact, we’ll just go ahead and declare January a non-month that didn’t really happen.  At least in terms of writing and closet organization.

Now, though, I’m ready to go.  I not only have postcards and other nifty stationery, I have stamps!  I bought a whole bunch at the post office the other day.

So this is a good time to email me your addresses if you think there’s even the smallest chance that I don’t have it.  I will take that as a hint that I should send you a postcard.

3.

One good thing to come out of the non-month of January is that I finally made it out to a local coffee place I’ve been meaning to spend time at.  Cup of Hope is a fair trade coffee shop run by nuns.  It’s a component of the HOPES Center, a social services outreach of the Racine Dominicans.  I think it’s very quickly going to become one of my favorite hangouts.

4.

Speaking of things I’ve been meaning to do, my boyfriend finally persuaded me to watch Downton Abbey with him.  I use the word “finally” because of all the chatter & persuasion I had heard previously.  My guy didn’t actually have to push very hard.  By the time he’s suggesting a television show for me to watch, it is way past overdue.

We’ve been watching together in between all of our other various activities when we manage to be in the same place.  While we have made it into the current season, we are still several episodes behind.  It’s cool, though.  I already know all of the spoilers.  That’s just how the Internet works.

5.

On my own I’ve been watching some Warehouse 13.  This has helped to fill some of the Eureka-shaped hole in my heart.  Yes, the show is almost unbearably goofy at times, but so much of my favorite sci-fi is.  There’s something about the aesthetic that appeals to my imagination.  It’s very steampunk, but not in an overwhelming way.  The in-world rules seem to favor technological explanations, but there is a magical sort of mystery to the way things work that seems to become more and more prominent as the series progresses.  I think, above all, that I love to picture this secret world of excitement and magic and advanced-yet-outdated tech intertwined with the normal world I have to live in.

I also thought they showed some very pretty pictures of Detroit in the episode that took place there.

6.

I first heard this song on one of those episodes of Warehouse 13, and I’ve had it on repeat pretty much ever since.  It’s very sad, but it’s so lovely.

7.

So, this is for mature audiences only, but I am really, really loving The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and highly recommend them to anyone who has ever even considered reading Pride and Prejudice.  This is a fantastically interesting and well-done project fashioning Jane Austen’s classic novel into a modern, Internet-based setting.  The main show is the video blog of  Lizzie Bennet, a communications grad student, but it’s complemented and enhanced by other video series and social media accounts stretching throughout several sites and belonging to various characters.  The actors are all ridiculously talented and the writers are inspiring.  The adaptation is incredibly clever.  The Bennets are in danger of losing their home to foreclosure, Mr. Collins proposes a business partnership, Darcy is the CEO of Pemberley Digital and George Wickham has ensnared Lydia in a truly shocking and horrifying way.  Check out lizziebennet.com for the scoop.