The fact that I could actually watch Anthony Bourdain eat twelve different foie gras dishes and some raw seal (including the prized eyeball) signaled the worst was over. My appetite was still off, but I was feeling much better. Well enough to shower up and get dressed rather than lounging about all day in my pyjamas like some endearing eccentric, but of course nowhere near well enough to actually head out and run errands. My body is still recuperating after all.
I woke up late, actually managed my morning run, and watched a few more episodes of Gankutsuou a scifi/anime remimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I can’t recommend this one enough – a smart, complex, character-driven, gorgeous series.
I started yet another book for the book club and, after one hundred or so pages, had to set it aside. It was frustratingly overwritten and, frankly, not all that interesting. Which is too bad because the novel is described as a space opera and it’s a sub-genre I thought I’d enjoy. But the last two “space operas” I read were dreadful, so I’m going to have to put “space opera” up there with “cyberpunk” as two types of scifi I need to avoid at all costs. Unless someone can recommend a worthy example of either of course. Anyone? Well, fortunately, I had a back-up book handy, Parable of the Talents which is a sequel to Parable of the Sower, an at times incredibly depressing but remarkably well-realized post-apocalyptic novel by the great Octavia E. Butler.
I also went back over some of my early Hong Kong posts and re-upped some of the photos that had Flickr had eaten.
And finally, I got around to watching Thank Your For Smoking which stars Aaron Eckhart as a charismatic, smooth-talking shill for Big Tobacco. It’s a great movie that mixes fact and fiction to wickedly provocative effect. It feels like ages since I’ve sat through a movie I actually enjoyed, and this was one of those rare instances.
Dinner: I managed some cereal for breakfast and a power bar for lunch. By the time Fondy came home today at a little after 7:00 p.m., I was ravenous. I wanted to ease myself back into eating form with a bowl of nutritious soup from The Sha Lin Noodle House, but the place was packed. Cranky, hungry, and unwilling to wait anywhere for a table, I drove us to McDonalds. One Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and an order of fries later and I’m not feeling quite as well. Well, nothing that a piece of dark chocolate can’t fix, I’m sure.
Time for some viewer mail –
Anonymous #1 writes: “1) I’ve only ever seen Wraith suck life out of someone with their right hands. Can you get left-handed or even double-handed Wraith when it comes to sucking life? 2) Do the Wraith that wear masks look the same as the Wraith without masks, or does Wraith society have 3 genders (i.e, soldiers, workers and queens)?
3) Since the Wraith are evolved from the Iratus bug, does that mean that new Wraith are ‘born’ the same way as Iratus bugs, or are they like humans in that matter?”
Answers: 1) The wraith have one feeding hand. 2) We’ll get a peek at their concealed mugs in season four and there are three distinct sub-set of wraith. 3) Again, check out season four to find out.
Alipeeps writes: “Have you read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time?”
Answer: Nope. Is it scifi?
Meg writes: “Have you ever read “Still Life with June” by Darren Greer?”
Answer: Nope. Is it scifi?
Lughtigern writes: “I think the Sunchoke soup did it.”
Answer: That was my initial suspicion because I started feeling sick approximately two hours after I’d had the soup. And while one could well have pointed the finger at the soup’s cream base or the organic raw egg yolk, I’d be more inclined to blame the raw pea sprouts. If, on the other hand, the prevailing wisdom is that one will only feel the effects of food poisoning after 24 hours, then the only thing it could have been were the strawberries I had for breakfast Thursday morning. A fascinating mystery.
Lughtigern also writes: “Is there any chance that an episode in season 4 (or later) will cover more of the backstory of the Ancients?”
Answer: Various stories over the course of season four will offer more pieces to the puzzle.
Lorr54 writes: “You mentioned ComiCon yesterday. Any idea who from the crew/cast will be going?”
Answer: I have no idea who is going as of yet, but I know that SciFi has let if be known they would love the entire cast to show.
MushyPup writes: “Anyway, she said that the only food poisoning to come on that quickly after eating is a form of staph, usually found in shrimp”
Answer: Alas, I had the shrimp on Wednesday night, a good 60 hours before I started feeling nauseous. It has an alibi.
Anonymous #2 writes: “Wasn’t it mentioned that Kewlona (yeah, my spelling is awful) was one of the planets wiped out in um…Counterstrike?”
Answer: It was never said Kelowna had been “wiped out”, only that it had fallen to the Ori.
Shivani writes: “Are you going to use more of your bench players in the upcoming season then you have in the past?”
Answer: The way season four is shaping up, it looks like we’ll be seeing a fair amount of both Radek and Lorne.
Sis writes: “The restaurant I visited in Miami is called Michy’s…”
Answer: So where are the pics?
Leave a Reply