a conspiracy of cartographers

Summer!! Everything is a riot of green, and the air feels thick, and we keep having blazing sunlight punctuated by torrents of rain. I'm sure by late June I'll be wailing about how I can't stand the heat -- and my sleep is already much more restless, seriously, my body hates heat -- but at the moment it feels like a lovely change. Plus I get to wear skirts and shorts and dresses and tank tops! Yeeeeah summer clothes.

Work feels much less stressful now that -- that it's summer, or identifiably the most stressful single thing in my life, I don't know. It feels very doable, which is nice! I've been entertaining myself by playing Marvel Bingo, otherwise known as the little ping of happiness I get when a customer's name is shared by a character. I've had Tony, Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Nick, Maria, James, Erik, Jane, and (Baldur) Thor, although bafflingly no Clints or Phils or Darcys yet. I've had Virginia and Margaret, along with lots of variations though none of them Peggy, and Elizabeth and variants though no Betty, and I'm not holding out for a Pepper even though there was that guy named Shark once.

Baldur Thor is no longer my very favorite, though, because last week I rung up a woman named Laufey. I now will not rest until I've collected the entire Norse pantheon!! (Terrible life choices.)

I've finally stopped dithering about and showing Housemate K the Angel/Buffy crossover episodes from the first two seasons of Angel, and we've officially embarked upon season six. I'm gonna ... very judiciously edit, for my own self-care, although I think the only one we're actually tapping out of entirely is Hell's Bells. Possibly we'll do Once More With Feeling tonight! And meanwhile I've given up on basically all other tv except Elementary and Warehouse 13 with Polaris, because PERFECT SHOWS ARE PERFECT, or at least mostly perfect, and if I need a break from Buffy I might do judicious rewatches.

Also WisCon is in three weeks! I feel a little bit like I'm carefully pulling myself from one nice thing to the next -- post-work telly-watching with K! adventures with scribe this coming Friday! out-of-town friend visiting next weekend! WISCONNN -- but I also feel like that's okay right now, and a lot better than I was doing, and honestly if I have a series of bright points to head towards, that feels much nicer than the tired determined slog.

Hello the internet! I am back from Dragon*Con, as caught up on my rlist as I can be bothered to be, and feeling completely dazed and flattened, although not actually ill (yet). I had an entirely fabulous time, and circumstances permitting I very much want to go again, though I don't think it will ever be the con of my heart -- far too terrifyingly crowded. That said, this was certainly one of the best weekends I've had in recent memory.

( Con report! This is a highlights version rather than a blow-by-blow. Tom Felton, various Buffy shenanigans, Sylvester McCoy, the Yule Ball, and MARK SHEPPARD. )

So that was essentially my con! I loved the hotel we were staying in, because it looked like something out of Star Wars, and I loved the three-plus days of intense fannishness and all the enthusiasm, and I am so glad I went, and now I am going to sit quietly in a corner for a while until I am functional again.

One of the things I am enjoying about Smallville is getting to play the "spot how other late '90s/early '00s shows also did a variation on this plot" game, although usually 'other shows' really means 'Buffy.' (Imagine my amused eye-rolling when Lana accidentally joins a vampire sorority presided over by Buffy Saunders, and James-Marsters-the-professor takes a moment to seriously declare, "Clark, there's no such thing as vampires.") When it's not taking cheap shots, though, Smallville does delightful things like the bodyswap episode (Lionel Luthor clearly beats out both Faith and Callisto-from-Xena in the People You Don't Want Possessing Your Body Awards) or the one-person-split-into-two-bodies episode (Dorky Xander vs. Competent Xander < Idealist Lex vs. Evil Lex. Sorry, Xander).

It probably sounds like my point is that I am a big fan of the Luthors (which is true! I am also a fan of the Blacks, and the Horsemen, and I'm sure I'd be a big fan of the Master's family if we'd ever met them, &c) but my actual point is that I started thinking about how cool personality-aspects-in-different-bodies episodes are. And how the aspects that get split are different depending on the character! For instance, in Buffy the split was meant to hit Buffy herself, to turn her into Ordinary Buffy and Super-Slayer, but when it got Xander, since he didn't have superpowers, it split him down a competence line. I'm not sure it would have worked the anticipated way on Buffy either, though! I think it would have more likely turned her into Insecure Lovesick Teenager Buffy and Competent Self-Sacrificing Leadership Buffy, and they would have both still had Slayer powers. On the other hand, with Willow we'd probably get Sweet Nerdy Willow and Dark Willow, so don't point personality-splitting radiation at just anyone, okay.

The problem is that once I start, I want to point personality-splitting radiation at everyone just to see what happens. Earnest, idealist Delenn vs. kill-you-mercilessly Delenn! Do-anything-for-a-story Chloe Sullivan vs. do-anything-for-her-friends Chloe! Awkward paternalistic librarian Giles vs. Ripper! Patient, dispensing-backhand-wisdom Methos vs. shanking-you-with-his-second-sword Methos! I keep thinking of more, but I will stop now. (If anyone wants to continue in comments, though, man, I could do this for hours.)

I wonder if Clark would turn into Ordinary Farm Boy Clark and Superman. Somehow, I think this works about as well as Ordinary Buffy and Super-Slayer. It is much more likely that he would turn into saves-his-friends-at-all-costs while smiling like a total sweetie Clark vs. some lying asshat. It's even worse than Merlin! I want to call out Gaius and Jonathan Kent and punch them for impressing on their wards the importance of secrecy unto sheer stupidity. God, Morgana and Lex should form a fucking support group.