Staying safe

[clocketpatch]

 Hello to any and all still on this feed. I am safe and secure during this great isolation event (which feels like the backstory for a Classic Doctor Who episode tbh). My area has no reported cases and is working hard to keep it that way. I am laid off (like half the planet, it feels like), but on the plus side that means I can stay home and do my bit to keep my community safe.

I haven't been around here for a long time. I've been busy with life, and have been avoiding the latest season of Who since I've been told by reliable sources that the finale would make me unhappy (and since I've never been a Chibnal fan, I'm taking that warning seriously), but if anyone wants to chat during this time about past seasons of Who, Blakes 7, art, writing, gardening, that terrible tiger docuseries, or anything else, I'm here to natter on and help take your mind off things.

Take care everyone. Stay safe.


(and special thanks to JJPOR for reaching out and reminding me that I hadn't checked in with everyone here yet)

Comments

[swordznsorcery]

Hello! Glad you're well. Everybody on Twitter seems to have been watching the tiger thing, and they're all equally appalled. I'm glad I can't watch it! What does get into some people's heads.

Are you a keen gardener? Everything is just getting going now, although the ground is still too cold to sew seed directly. My greenhouse is full of Growing Things though. And a mild, wet winter means that everywhere is weeds. Still, it's something to do!

[clocketpatch]

The tiger series is a train wreck you can't look away from.

I do like gardening! It's still actively snowing here, but I've got a bunch of seedlings in a cat-proof cage by the window. I've also got all sorts, but I'm most excited by some Portugese dwarf melon seeds I got for Christmas. I have no idea how they'll work in this climate, but it's certainly are going to be an entertaining race against time to get fruit set and ripened before the end of August.

[swordznsorcery]

Dwarf melons sound like a great thing to grow. It's always nice to have things in the garden that you can eat! Sounds like you need to think about which bit of the garden gets the most sun at the right time of year.

[eve11]

Hi! I am glad you are doing well. Sorry to hear about the layoff; that really sucks though :(

Doing fine here as well. D and I are both working from home for the pandemic. Though I left my house for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday to go pick up my car so it could sit in my driveway instead of the rental I'd gotten (D backed into my car with his truck in the driveway a few weeks back). Was surprised how unused to driving I'd gotten in just 3 weeks.

I haven't gotten around to the last few episodes of this season of Who. I've been pretty meh on 13 so far. And Chibs. Haven't been watching much TV, although that doesn't mean I'm substituting that for productive things. I miss seeing you and the old crew around on LJ/DW and having lots of awesome Who stuff to talk/write about.

[clocketpatch]

Glad to hear you're doing well! My employer did what she could to keep us, but there was no work and the emergency benefit is going to pay more than reduced hours would, so it's best all around. We've been told that we'll all be recalled once the world gets back to normal.

Yikes about your car. My brother did that to his wife's car last summer. Makes me wonder how common interfamily collisions are.

I also miss the seeing the old crew around. I'm hoping to write more with all of this free time I'm suddenly experiencing. We'll see how that goes. I have to keep reminding myself that it's okay to not be full steam ahead productive in the middle of a pandemic.

[eve11]

Ah well that's good that you will get called back. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. Part of me is looking forward to that, but part of me is also kind of glad that I don't have to drive to/from work every day (which for me is 100 miles round trip). It would be nice to be able to drive to other places though.

Ha, it's not even the first time that's happened within this family. I backed into D's car a few years ago. Didn't cause quite as much damage. And this time around everything (including the driveway-bound rental car) was covered by insurance. So it's not so bad. The worst thing about it was the few times I did drive the rental car, it smelled terribly of cigarette smoke inside.

I have about 2000 words of the next section of the WIP-o-Doom done. I might be able to post within the month. Other than that I've not been doing a lot of fannish stuff. I should try to figure out how to get back into writing. Maybe catching up w/Big Finish would help the fannish spark. I did find some good Eleven era stories on Ao3. I kind of miss Twelve too, but I'm not very good at writing that era. Maybe I should poke at that some more.

[thisbluespirit]

CLOCKET!!! ♥ *glomps you from a socially responsible virtual distance*

I am very sorry about you being laid off, but am delighted to hear from you. I miss you loads when you're not around.

Not watching the finale is probably a very good idea. It made me very unhappy and unfannish indeed, and I didn't even know such a thing was possible.

As for B7, my flister hamsterwoman has just made it through the series and has, if you can find them, posts on their thoughts on S2 and on S3 (and no doubt presently on S4), and is happy if stray B7 fans drop in, if that will amuse you.

The situation is terrible, but I am in the bemused position of, at least, for the moment being almost better off - now everyone is isolated like me and coming back online! Nobody is making me go to appointments, they don't want to see me at all!

[clocketpatch]

*Glomps*

It is good to virtually see you too!

I shall definitely heed what I am hearing about the finale. I don't think I've ever seen so many Whovians in agreement about something being a bad episode. Shame. I was enjoying Thirteen and her crowded TARDIS too.

I may ambke over to watch Hamsterwoman's reactions (brilliant username she has. I am quite partial to hamsters)

And as for being laid off, it is temporary for the crisis, I still have benefits, I can stay at home and prevent the spread while playing with the critters, and I'm lucky enough to live in a country that has set up UBI for those affected so I'm taking any income hit.

On the downside I am scatterred brained mess who can't figure out which project to conquer first and ends up doing very little instead. Alas. But that is not the worse problem to have at a time like this.

I'm also, via internet and phone, reconnecting with so many friends and family members.

[thisbluespirit]

I shall definitely heed what I am hearing about the finale. I don't think I've ever seen so many Whovians in agreement about something being a bad episode.

It's not so much that it was a bad episode, really, just that it involved a very big retcon that affected everything and it depends on how you would feel about that retcon as to whether or not it would be fine with you. I got spoiled for it and then took nearly a week before I could bring myself to watch it, and the ep itself in contrast doesn't even seem to realise the magnitude of what it's done, so it's odd, and I can see how some people can miss how significant it is. (It's like he tried to do the Moffat thing where you do a big reveal but restate the ethos of the show except he missed and changed everything ever without realising that what he's done. It's very perplexing.) The best thing I can say about it is that Sacha Dhawan was excellent again. But, yeah. If the particular thing about the retcon didn't bother you, you might even enjoy it.

If it does bother you, though, you might wind up joining those of us on the bench where CC somehow killed our fannishness. I am really so weird about DW right now. Happily, I was simultaneously having one of my intermittent episodes of intense Star Wars Prequel feels and so have just gone off to the land of Canon AUs over there. (Everything is an AU in that corner of the fandom. :lol:)

I'm glad you are basically okay though! ♥

[john_amend_all]

Good to see you around again, though I'm sorry to hear you've been laid off.

Seconding what others have said about season 12 — it poisoned my feelings for the entire show, and left me wondering whether I could amputate at The Big Bang or Twice Upon A Time, or whether I had to go all the way back to The Curse Of Fatal Death.

[clocketpatch]

Good to see you as well!

Yikes. I will avoid with great prejudice in that case.

[liadt]

Sorry to hear you have been laid off, but glad you are safe. I'm quite isolated in the countryside, but most of my family live in a hotspot which is worrying.

I'm feeling like Rimmer out of 'Red Dwarf' at the mo' as I miss going out being able to touch things.

Didn't like the finale of 'Dr Who' but my brain has decided it doesn't apply to Old Who.

[clocketpatch]

Glad to hear from you as well! I'm also tuckes away in the countryside, as is most of my family, but my dad, and most of the boyfriend's family, are in hotspots, so that's a lot of worry. I kind of wish we'd brought then all out to our hoise before thobhs started hitting off, but I don't know how that would have worked and isn't really possible now. So, wishful thinking.

I'm feeling lucky that it is still persistently snowing here because it makes the outside world look slippery and cold and unpleasant, which helps with being cooped up.

[liadt]

Yeah, I wish I could have my brother with me as he lives alone. The weather here is lovely and it's nice to see the birds flying around.

[garpu]

Hello! Yeah, it's been rough, here, because growing up Gen X, this feels like "The Day After," when we're hunkered down in our basements, waiting for the radiation to kill us. I know, stats say otherwise, and that if we catch covid-19, we'll be miserable, but likely make it. Brainmeats do as brainmeats will, though.

[clocketpatch]

Good to see you.

Heh, my town has put up a bunch of very dystopian signs that definitely aren't helping with yhe post apocalyptic vibe: "clean!clean!clean!", "2M or Else!", "Compassion is contagious", "Isolation is your Obligation" and my personal favourite, "Soap is KING!!!".

[thisbluespirit]

"Compassion is contagious", "Isolation is your Obligation"

OMG, that is definitely dystopian!!