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Firstly, my thoughts go out to everyone affected by the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan and the Pacific basin. I hope that all my flisties in the region, and all your loved ones, are safe and sound. I haven't seen a fandom auction and/or help resource go up yet but I'm sure there will be something soon. Right now the only helpful links I can think to post are Google's People Finder and the Red Cross Blog.

ETA: That link is for the UK arm of the Red Cross, try the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies site.

Son of ETA: Fandom is awesome - hie thee hence to

help_japan

This sentence is an abrupt-change-of-tone buffer.

So, today's crafty post. I had this floor lamp that I loved very much, but some of the panels had been damaged over the years, so I decided to cut all the panels out, replace the ones that were too badly ripped and salvage the ones that weren't. Maybe I'd add some small embellishments, I thought. Then it turned into an epic stencil project that took up all my crafts-for-me time throughout January and February. And then I discovered that it's really hard to take pictures of an item that is itself a source of light. Especially since when the lamp is off (or I tried to use the camera flash) you can't actually see any of the designs - it just looks like panels of plain paper. So this post has taken quite a while to get organised!

Because it's for me, it's a bit messy in places and I tried some techniques that I won't try again. But I actually quite like how it turned out, overall. I'm definitely going to try to use some of these ideas again for smaller table lamps I can sell, but that'll require quite a lot of research and planning!

The biggest problem I had with taking photos was the difference between the Bat signal panels and the other ones. With the naked eye there isn't as big a contrast as there are in these pics.

( Loads more pics under the cut! )

Many people on my flist have been doing the 30 days of TV meme and I've enjoyed reading them. But due to procrastination and short(ish) answers, I'm just posting my answers in a oner.

Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled

Firefly. I know it's something of a go-to answer for many geeker types, but when someone asks that question my gut immediately answers "Firefly" just like how my gut answers the question "who would win in a fight..." with "Batman" before I even know who the options are. And I know that part of the reason it's so perfect is that it never had time to make any major missteps, but I so wish I could have spent more time with those characters. I would genuinely use one of my three wishes on having it back if I ever met a Genie. That is so dorky and I don't even care.

Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching

Friday Night Lights. There's no sensible reason in the world why I'd care to watch a show about American Football at a High School in Texas, and clearly many other people in the world agree and have decided not to bother watching. The problem is that that's not what Friday Night Lights is about. It's about class, and race, and community, and family, and relationships, and loyalty, and responsibility, and hardship, and living with the hand that life has dealt you. It's about growing up, and about being grown up. It's about parenting, both about being a parent and being a child. It's about birth and death and joy and pain and the whole of life and it's just heartbreakingly beautiful. I could rhapsodize about it for quite some time. Watch it. (And yes, season two went a bit wobbly but since then it's been as wonderful as it's ever been.)

Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)

Justified. The dialogue is just scrumptious, the characters all feel so three dimensional, the little details make me happy, and oh my assorted gods why had I never noticed how hot Timothy Olyphant is before now?

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

My brain says The Wire. My heart says Buffy.

Day 05 - A show you hate

There aren't really any TV shows I hate, because the stuff I probably would hate I don't watch. I imagine if I watched a lot of reality shows or your CSI type crime shows then my blood pressure would be a lot higher.

I do however have a very vivid memory of a visceral reaction to a TV show that could be classified as hate. Several years back I was a visitor in someone's home and therefore bound by politeness to watch what they wanted to watch. And they wanted to watch Mad About Alice, an alleged sitcom starring the alleged actress (and now alleged judge of talent) Amanda Holden. Probably the worst half hour of television I have ever sat through. Every aspect of that production was made of fail. And afterwards I had to go away and cry because something that awful had been given such a prime piece of BBC Friday night real estate. Thankfully I was not alone and it's gone down in British tv history as an absolute disaster. But somehow Amanda Holden keeps getting work.

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show

Really hard to pick one episode of The Wire as it's so un-episodic. But my favourite ever scene takes place in "All Prologue" - Omar on the witness stand pwning the hell out of the world's most ethically-challenged lawyer. Sheer joy. And that episode also features a fabulous bit part actress who plays a stripper - she has already stolen her entire scene before she even moves on to readjusting her boobs.

And for Buffy, my favourite is probably "Once More with Feeling" although I think "The Body" is the best episode.

Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show

Impossible to pick a least fave for The Wire.

As for Buffy, ( mild spoilers and mild ranting for "Into the Woods" )

Dishonourable mention should also go here to Battlestar Galactica's "The Captain's Hand". ( mild spoilers for that episode )

Day 08 - A show everyone should watch

The Wire. Again a predictable answer from an admitted telly-addict, but it really does live up to its reputation as the best tv show ever.

Day 09 - Best scene ever

Too many to pick from!

( Brief Buffy finale spoilers )

Aforementioned Omar witnessin' scene. And the famous variations on "fuck" scene is pretty special.

Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

I had no real interest in Battlestar Galactica initially. But Mr Blaize had a childhood fondness and so we tuned in for the mini series. I liked Kara pretty much straight away but was mostly meh on the whole thing. "33" however was pretty gripping and by the time we got to the end of the first season I was hooked. Overall I have had a rather manic love-hate relationship with BSG but I think the good outweighs the bad, and it certainly elicited many yelling at the telly moments, which I judge to be a very good sign.

Day 11 - A show that disappointed you

Heroes is a text book example of squandering every single piece of potential in a show. In the future it will be taught as how not to make a TV show if you don't want your audience to end up hating you.

Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times

Oh dear. I watch a lot of tv. I've watched a lot of things more than five times. But I've probably watched Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" more than any episode of anything ever.

Day 13 - Favorite childhood show

Doctor Who. And in many ways it still is. A really good episode of Doctor Who has the power to make me feel 7 years old all over again. From the moment Christopher Ecclestone said "run for your life" I knew that nu-Who could excite me just like it had done when I was young.

Day 14 - Favorite male character

~~Omar Little. Ryan O'Reilly. Eliot Spencer. Wesley Wyndham-Price. Ben Linus. Jean Luc Picard. Saul Tigh. Mal Reynolds. Eric Taylor.~~

The Doctor.

Day 15 - Favorite female character

~~Kara Thrace. Veronica Mars. Buffy Summers. Willow Rosenberg. Audrey Horne. Lorelei Gilmore. Door. Tammi Taylor. Parker.~~

Sister Peter-Marie.

Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show

Don't really feel any guilt over anything I watch. But the closest probable candidates would be Strictly Come Dancing and its US spin off Dancing With the Stars. Both shows seem to have run out of interesting celebrities, both have become overlong and bloated with nonsense, both judging panels have become parodies of themselves (and doing both shows at the same time is clearly causing Len and Bruno to suffer some form of jet lag induced insanity), and I'm not entirely sure why I'm watching anymore, other than for the pro dancer numbers they use to fill time.

Day 17 - Favorite mini series

Generation Kill. "That was pretty fucking ninja."

Day 18 - Favorite title sequence

Treme and Carnivale both have great titles, but my favourite is True Blood's. HBO seems to really care about the title sequence and I really appreciate that, and in terms of sharing the mood and feel of a show I think it's one of the best.

Day 19 - Best TV show cast

Tough call. It has to be either The Wire or Oz (these two shows both have the advantage of being very large casts, but oh! what casts!). On the one hand The Wire doesn't have Lee Tergesen or Rita Morena or Dean Winters or Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje or Eammon Walker or JK Simmons or Christopher Meloni or Kirk Acevedo. But Oz doesn't have Idris Elba or Andre Royo or Michael K Williams or Wendell Pierce or Jim True-Frost or Sonja Sohn or Michael B Jordan or James Ransone. All I know for sure is that the best cast were cast by Alexa L Fogel. The woman is clearly a genius.

Day 20 - Favorite kiss

Jack Harkness and John Hart in Torchwood's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"' is pretty spectacular.

Day 21 - Favorite ship

I generally choose to sidestep any potential fandom kerfuffles of this sort. If pressed, I'll go with Tammi Taylor/Eric Taylor.

Day 22 - Favorite series finale

Buffy felt like the perfect ending to me. And if the comics end up undoing that ending or implying that it was a bad thing to do I will have a temper tantrum of epic proportions.

Day 23 - Most annoying character

James Hurley in Twin Peaks. You are not James Dean and your storyline in season two is the single most pointless plotline in the history of ever you weird-haired flat-faced vortex of boredom and despair. Ahem.

Day 24 - Best quote

"Hey! What did you just call him? You used that word, you’re talking about him. You live a few years, you start seeing in people’s hearts. Even the best people. You use the “N” word? Yeah, how about retard? You call that nice girl in Cheerios retard? But you think it’s okay to come into my house and say faggy? I know what you meant! What? You didn’t think I used that word when I was your age? You know, some kid gets clocked in practice and we tell him to stop being such a fag, shake it off. We meant it exactly the way you meant it. That being gay is wrong. That it’s some kind of punishable offense. I really thought you were different, Finn. You know, I thought that being in Glee club, and being raised by your mom, that you were some new generation who saw things differently, who just came into the world knowing what it’s taken me years of struggling to figure out. I guess I was wrong. I’m sorry Finn, but you can’t stay here. I love your mom and maybe this is going to cost me her, but my family comes first. I can’t have that kind of poison around here. This is our home. He is my son. Out in the world, you do what you want. Not under my roof.”

Glee is a show that I have a tumultuous relationship with but I fucking love Burt Hummel.

Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)

Deadwood. Not entirely sure why I didn't watch it when it was first airing, but my recent rediscovery of Olyphant has made it a priority.

Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale

( Spoilers for BSG s3 finale )

Day 27 - Best pilot episode

Firefly's "Serenity" hits the ground running, but the whole not being aired thing didn't help matters. Lost's pilot is gorgeous but it really ought to be at that price. I think Veronica Mars's pilot wins here - who Veronica is and what Neptune is like is set up so slickly and elegantly. And so perfectly noir.

Day 28 - First TV show obsession

Buffy. The fandom that sucked me into these here interwebs and kick started a chain of events that make me, me. Sappy, but true.

Day 29 - Current TV show obsession

Leverage makes me laugh more than most sitcoms (and by 'most sitcoms' I mean all sitcoms that aren't Fawlty Towers). But it can still bring the drama when it feels right. Most of all it's just so much fun to watch. And it has Christian Kane punching people in new and interesting ways. What's not to love? And its fandom is pretty awesome too. White Collar is also approaching obsession like levels for me too.

Day 30 - Saddest character death

Another tough one. Tara on Buffy and Charlie on Lost both made me weep copiously. But I think the saddest ever is Cyril O'Reilly in Oz. I can't even get into describing why - if you've seen it you know why. In a show with so much death and so much injustice it really is the most heartbreaking thing they do. And now I'm just realizing how many similarities there are (in storytelling terms) between Cyril's death and Charlie's on Lost - the audience knows this character is going to die; their fate is sealed, their storyline heads inexorably towards death. Then comes the episode where the audience is sure death will claim them, and then - last minute reprieve! The audience begins to relax, but come next week... Dead fictional character, sobbing real audience member.