(no subject)
Feb. 1st, 2012 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesade1. Warum schreibt Claudia Handschin an Thomas? Claudia und Thomas möchten eine Brieffreundschaft beginnen.
2. Warum interessiert sich Thomas wohl für die Schweiz?
3. Welcher Prozentsatz von Schweizern spricht Deutsch? 65 Prozentsatz.
4. Warum ist der offizielle Name der Schweiz ein lateinischer Name? ... Ich weiß nicht. The thing wasn't explicit. Ich glaube, weil der Schweiz hat vier offiziellen Sprachen?
5. Wann lernen die Kinder Hochdeutsch? Sie lernen in der Schule.
6. Warum schreibt Claudia den Brief auf Hochdeutsch? Weil die Studentinen in die amerikanisch Schulen studieren Hochdeutsch. Which isn't the answer they gave in the reading but is probably more accurate. You write the language you expect to be understood.
7. Was importieren und was exportieren die Schweizer? Die Schweizer importieren Rohstoffe und Lebensmittel und exportieren Maschinen und Apparate.
8. Was ist die Basis für die starke Wirtschaft der Schweiz?
9. Seit wann ist die Schweiz Mitglied der UN? Seit 2002.
I may be missing some, I went through and did the easy ones first because I have very little energy left.
I present for your perusal, the next creation of CBS, a romantic time travel musical. I only wish I were joking. The hell, people? Seriously, what the hell?
Also, argh. That's it, tonight I am packing up all that crap I keep meaning to send, since none of it is exactly perishable, and I am shipping it out tomorrow. Because I really need to remember that. And part of it is that I keep shipping footstuffs and therefore I try to remember to ship it at the beginning of the week, but books and DVDs are not going to suffer for languishing in a warehouse over the weekend.
I need a nap. Or less house anxiety. Or both. Preferably both. Things are chugging along and at the moment, barring unexpected Something Awfuls lurking, it looks like this might all be over quicker than anyone thought. Location's good, price is at least right if not very right if they accept our first offer, size is phe-fucking-nominal, and there is garden space. Really, there's garden space in all the candidates, but this one has a location within walking distance of the market street with the bakery of nom and a couple local grocery stores, the Guitar Mama's pretty close... etc. Plus it's Old Hotness. Next Friday someone remind me or, well, most likely no one will have to remind me because I'll be bouncing off the walls, but next Friday if all goes well I will speak to you further of Old Hotness. And how absolutely hot it is.
And, really, it would also be nice if this does pan out so we can do the damn moving thing sooner rather than later and I can get on with my life. It sounds a bit warped but I really, really am getting antsy. I want to start costuming for Dragon*Con. I want to get some sleep. With luck, we'll be making an offer next week, and after that I have no idea off the top of my head what the timeline is, or even the specifics of the procedure beyond counteroffer/accept/reject. Hopefully one of the first two. Hopefully that middle one. Need to go back and look at my post of Syn's Awesome Infodumping. I may be taking shameless advantage of actually living here (the bank that owns it does not) and having done a bit of research on it. Also being willing to say scratches in the paint/wallpaper? Two and a half bricks falling out of the front stoop? Cosmetic shutters falling off? THAT'S FIXABLE. That probably helps. Right, that's enough thinking about the house right now.
So tired. So ready for work or anything to calm down now so I can get some sleep. Only there's more looking at houses this weekend just in case, and Arabic and hopefully not a game this weekend, but you never know. We did manage to trade out the rice with golf ball sized mold balls in it without a hitch, for other rice. The lady at the desk actually wasn't surprised and was going to show it to her co-business-owner and point out that maybe now they should stop putting wet stuff all over their rice and maybe they should scrap that whole pallet. Her tone amused me. I've used that tone before. Anyway, she was apologetic and kept our mold-golf-ball-filled rice to show him. And we got new rice.
Right. Home, guitar, food possibly maybe or maybe just sleep, comma, all of the. And I have to check in and then try and get at least some writing done, and triage the rest of my writing for at least the next week or so. Because this is going to eat my brain to bits.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-02 03:05 am (UTC)This list doesn't even mention CW's take on Beauty and the Beast that they've got in the works. And of course there's the B&tB series ABC has reportedly begun to develop, which will be paired with OUaT.
It's like a flashback to the 90's all over again. NBC had the 10th Kingdom, CBS had Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, and I think ABC had 1001 Arabian Nights. Then America said "stick a fork in me I'm done," and no more fantasy series until OUaT/Grimm. Fantasy series that were successful, anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-02 03:07 am (UTC)I do not approve.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-02 03:12 am (UTC)And I have no idea why ABC is jumping on the B&tB bandwagon. I think either that one or the CW one is going to be a modern update of the 90's series, which again raises the question of "why". Not everything needs to be new and improved.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-02 03:24 am (UTC)Because they're made of idiots. Maybe. Probably.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 12:47 am (UTC)"So, names are important! Names are in fact sufficiently important that everyone's name has some kind of meaning in Storybrooke.
...how did that happen? Did the creator or the caster of the curse have something to do with it? If so, how much power does it give Gold or Regina (or perhaps both) over everyone? I mean, the easy answer is "because the writers are taken with their own cleverness," but I want my Watsonian explanation. More benign explanation, whoever held onto their identity in some way has that reflected back in their name. Okay, slightly more benign explanation. LESS TERRIFYING than Gold having some kind of naming power over the entire town."
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:12 am (UTC)That's a good question, actually. They haven't really touched on the name thing since the pilot. I was going to go with "writers taken with their own cleverness" plus "they seriously underestimate the intelligence of viewers," but an in-show explanation? Hm. Maybe it's a cruel joke on the curse's part? Everyone has some tie to who they really are, they just don't know it. Even Regina, if we believe that she is or is related to the miller's daughter. But you know, I wouldn't write off Gold's naming power either. He did pull Hansel and Gretel's dad's name out of his ass, and he wasn't even involved in their story. I get the sense that Gold wrote himself and his shop into the curse as a library for everything related to the resident's previous lives.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:22 am (UTC)... and actually now that you put it like that, I previously thought his demanding riches was a way to give the Evil Queen the impression that she expected of him, and a smokescreen for the "do whatever I say" clause. But now I wonder if that wasn't also part of the set-up for his Little Shop of Hor-- er, Storybrooke's Lives.
Which makes him the Stephen King Evil-MildMannered-Supposedly-Harmless-Guy-In-A-Shop-In-A-Little-Town-In-Maine.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:30 am (UTC)Oooh, that's possible. She's never seemed suspicious of his work, just his motives. And even then only when he interferes with whatever her scheme of the day is. He could be getting away with all kinds of things as long as he masks them beneath his day job.
Unrelated, I'm pretty sure there's a new Grimm tonight. The guy who plays the asian cop was one of the directors on this one, so it'll be interesting to see what he can do when he's in the chair.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:39 am (UTC)Also, she's a really stupid twit. It's funny, she keeps saying she knows he's dangerous and scheming, but she never does anything about it. I wonder if that's because she doesn't dare draw his attention anymore than she already has, but I think it's just because she's stupid.
Ooh. I might have to check that out later or tomorrow. I do like that Grimm's been slowly getting better. Although the subplot needs shook some more.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:49 am (UTC)Maybe she tried, but Gold said "Please disregard any further action on my part from here on out, no matter how blatantly it screws with your plans and demonstrates that I do, in fact, remember everything."
I keep waiting for them to go back to the "the police chief is evil" storyline. His nice-guy-ness is lulling me into a false sense of security. If I'm going to believe he's a Grimm killing bastard, then they've got to show him doing something properly evil, unless it turns out that he's going to defend Nick against the other creatures for some reason because he's known him as a cop for so long. Also, Nick's wife is dead weight. I don't think she's made a single meaningful contribution to any episode she's been featured in, emotionally or otherwise. Hopefully they'll give her more to do now that it looks like the creatures are aware of where Nick lives, though I don't even know if she can act well enough to handle better material.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 01:57 am (UTC)Anna would like to tell you "THAT EXPLAINS SO MUCH." Meanwhile, I cackle and agree.
They should, because I also want to know what kind of creature he is. With the hacking off of ears and such. I keep expecting him to be all "Nick, I am your father" or something, because that's awfully weird of him. Yeah, I don't know what's up with Nick's wife. I mean, it's good to show he has some kind of connections that aren't cops or Grimm things, but does she have to be in every episode doing very little? Can't she just show up now and again in every third episode? Or something, I don't know.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:03 am (UTC):D It's a power that comes in handy, though. Who knows what she's caught him at over the years that he's just "pleased" his way out of? Poor woman. Her short-term memory is going to be mush by the time the curse is broken.
I know! Tonight's episode made me think that some creatures are better than others at hiding their true nature from a Grimm. Since Nick can't see the chief for what he is, so he's gotta be something powerful. Or, curiously, human.
Also, I thought you'd enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOVoP7h7F8&feature=youtu.be
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:39 am (UTC)It must! Hell, if I had that power I'd do that. And he looked so smug about it, too.
Hrrm. I was betting on human, but if he's ridiculously powerful then what is he doing as police chief? I mean, being police chief is a useful thing, no doubt, but what are his motivations? See, this is how you spin out a plot, OUaT. Take notes.
Oh Mark Gatiss. Does that scenery taste good?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:54 am (UTC)At the least, being police chief would give him a feel for what the creatures in his region are up to, assuming that the results of their crimes end up on his desk. I don't know if anyone actively monitors the creatures to ensure that their violence stays within acceptable limits, though. So far it doesn't seem like such a thing exists, but that could be because their crimes are so easily written off as the results of bizarre serial killers or something.
Funny thing is, I did NOT recognize him without the hairpiece. When my friend sent me that I was just trying to figure out who he was and why I should care. It was nearly at the end before I went OH! MYCROFT!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:20 am (UTC)There is that... oh. Maybe he's an offshoot Grimm, one with a less well known name and less of a penchant for immediately hunting creatures, more about being sneaky and gathering information and, as you say, acceptable limits?
I recognized him from the voice, from there it was pretty easy to pick the face, but wow. That's really a lot of dramatic frothing he's doing. Funny dramatic frothing!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:39 am (UTC)Interesting...maybe he's an Andersen, the Grimm's lesser known counterparts thanks to the creature's penchant for mistaking their successes for something done by a Grimm. ;) Seriously, though, it's possible. Especially after tonight's episode. It's a good'un!
I need to save "I will pull out your teeth one by one and insult your clothing." for a special occasion. It's pretty fantastic.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:46 am (UTC)That's just mean. ;) I still can't believe Grimm's getting better while Once Upon A Time seems to be getting worse. That just depresses me on some level because there is so much potential in Once Upon A Time. Not that there isn't in Grimm, but. I guess it's just because they've actually managed to level out on the execution.
It is. Man's got a way with words.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:55 am (UTC)Someone on the TV Without Pity forum suggested that OUaT is suffering from "too many cooks in the kitchen" syndrome; I'm inclined to agree. The showrunners need to get better at unifying the quality of the writing between episodes and making sure that everyone's on board with characterization and the bigger vision for the story. Last week's felt like such a disaster because everyone but Gold and Regina were floundering. And the episode as a whole did nothing to advance the plot.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:21 pm (UTC)That might well be true. Anna and I have been screaming about the lack of a show bible on OUaT; then again, we do that about a lot of shows, but it really helps when there's one all-powerful source of information that writers can go to when they want to know the overall timeline or whether or not two people are related or what have you. I can't remember where I first read the term, but I know shows that have them tend to be more cohesive than shows that don't. If the writers follow them, anyway.
The general tenor of Storybrooke seems to be Everyone Flounders But Gold. Which I guess is both testament to Robert Carlyle's acting ability and the fact that only the decent writers seem to be doing very much with his character, other than having him pop out from nowhere to cackle and provide a deus ex machina. I think everyone I've seen talk about this show says he's carrying it.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:33 pm (UTC)You'd think they would have some kind of show bible given that it's from the Lost crew. At least, I hope Lost had a show bible. A series that sprawling would need some kind of guide, but I've never watched it so for all I know it was as much of a hot mess as OUaT can be. For example, I find it difficult to believe that everything that's happened in OUaT so far has taken place in less than two months, but someone worked out the timeline and it seems that only seven weeks have passed since Emma arrived. I don't know if that's intentional to show how quickly things are changing now that Emma's there, or if they just weren't paying attention to how much time they were allowing various events.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:40 pm (UTC)Re: Lost, let me put it this way. I was assured by several people that the first couple of seasons were quite good, and I should really give it a try. I tried repeatedly to get through the pilot and couldn't. Partly I think that's because the way they started out, it's not a show that trips any of my narrative buttons. More than that, though, I think it's because I kept hearing that they put all this crap in single frames and how awesome that was! And didn't we want to all be obsessive like that about this show!
Which, well... that's not my kind of show. If you want to give me subtlety and the assurance that the writers haven't forgotten about something from two years ago, give me, I don't know. B5? Give me Criminal Minds, where a character gets addicted to heroin, kicks it on his own over the course of a couple years, and the only direct references to it are in a pair of 30-second scenes.
Single frames? That's being overly taken with your own clever, which unfortunately seems to be the direction OUaT is headed. I keep hoping Espenson will be able to forestall some of it.
(I don't have a lot of rants built up about this. No. Of course not. Also, hi!)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:53 pm (UTC)I really, really hope OUaT keeps that kind of thing to a minimum. Enough to be engaging, but not so much that I stop enjoying each episode because I'm spending the whole thing squinting at each scene trying to figure out what's important and what's not.
That said, did anyone else notice that the Stranger's bike has Kansas plates? Suspicious... ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 04:40 pm (UTC)Me too. Although there's the benefit in OUaT that we're all very, very familiar with the source material, so even if we miss things, we'll probably go AHA at reveals.
I must admit I hadn't, though I think that's partly because Jag and I gleefully type HI BAE every time he turns up. There are so many toothmarks in that theory by now. >.> That said, I can't say I'm surprised; it's exactly the sort of clever detail they'd toss in.
(No, brain, we are not talking about how Bae went to live in Kansas just because it pissed his father off. Settle down.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 05:14 pm (UTC)Well, given how many decades ago the events of WoZ took place compared to Storybrooke's appearance in reality, it could be that Bae was adopted and/or married into the Gale family? He could be Dorothy's husband, who she married in part because he was the only one who believed her story about a wonderful, mad world that exists over the rainbow...
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 05:20 pm (UTC)And now I have Wicked Girls stuck in my head, thank you. (Dorothy just wanted something that she could believe in/a gray dustbowl girl in a life she was better off leavin'/she made her escape went from gray into green/and she could've got clear, and she could've got clean/but she chose to be good and go back to that gray Kansas sky/where color's a fable and freedom's a fairytale lie.) God, they would bond hard over that, but I don't recall a wedding ring on. So either he's leaving it off for sneaky son-of-Gold reasons or they got divorced, and given whose son he is I'm not sure I want to speculate why.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-04 05:28 pm (UTC)Then again, he doesn't necessarily have to be married to her or in the Gale family. If he moved to Kansas at any point after the events of Oz, he could've met Dorothy and learned of her tale. Maybe he's going around and chronicling the stories of others who have crossed over into Fairy Tale World?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-05 05:16 am (UTC)