More adventures in Vancouver

A few little things that I've discovered in Vancouver:

1. I walk past a building (two in fact) that were used in SG-1. This makes me very happy every day.

2. Not everyone in Vancouver is obsessed with science fiction even though I think they should be. I mean come on guys there was so much cool stuff filmed here. For instance, my friend was not excited at all by the fact that we were going across the bridge used at the end of Tron (the new one). Not at all. I was grinning like a loon.

3. The woods really are great fun to run around in and pretend you're on some far off planet.

4. People don't think it's all that strange when you want to dress up for Halloween (sort of) as a baddy from a TV series. Ok, so they don't actually know that you're dressing up as a Gou'ald, they just think you're being Cleopatra.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Amanda Tapping at the premiere for Random Acts of Romance. I did make the effort to go to the theatre and I even took a book with me to get signed. But it seemed that the VIPs had entered the building from the back judging by the big blacked out bus parked back there. I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world. I didn't get the chance to go and see the film at all in the end due to my new job.

Yes I have managed to find something working in a Halloween shop until the beginning of November which is really good fun. Being British I had never really seen how crazy people get over here for this holiday. At home, we're doing well if we even dress up. So amongst the many MANY costumes, I decided that I would do a Gou'ald as it's lots of fun and kind of glamourous. I even managed to find something to use as a ribbon device on my hand. I can't wait to get it all sorted out. I think it's going to end up looking mostly like Hathor due to my hair colour at the moment.

I think that's it for the moment. I've regressed a bit into reading The Hunger Games again, but I'm enjoying it mostly. I still find Katniss horribly annoying as a protagonist but hey that's not going to change any time soon. I haven't had the chance to see Looper yet even though it looks just plain AWESOME. Can't wait for that one. May have to save up a bit though, the cinema here is even more expensive than home.

A fangirl in Vancouver...

Another big break between posts but this one is very justified I feel... I have moved to VANCOUVER! I arrived last week and it's been a blast so far with few mishaps and a lot of fun.

I wanted to write this post to consider the fact that most people consider geek/nerd kind to be permanently indoors attached to some form of device connected to the internet. Well this is simply not true, travelling has been a desire of mine for a long time and I'm so glad that I'm finally here. But I think it's safe to say that I have not embraced the travelling lifestyle just yet - I just can't shake off my geeky tendencies. Which is to be expected of course.

Coming to Vancouver in particular is such a dream for me, as it is pretty much the home of all things sci-fi on TV or film. Stargate, Smallville, BSG, Once Upon a Time, Sanctuary all were filmed in and around Vancouver which means that you can't really go anywhere without seeing something that's been on screen. For example, I was walking along the sea wall yesterday and strolled past an area used in a Stargate episode. I would have fangirled if it weren't for all the people walking as well, apparently oblivious to the importance of said spot of grass.

This has been going on all week, I went walking on the North Shore near Mt. Seymour and spent most of the time looking for Jack's cabin or Sam's house or spots in the forest where various scenes from BSG could have been shot. Probably a little pathetic, but alas this is the behaviour of a fangirl on tour.

The other part of this is that I keep expecting to just bump into actors from these shows. I walk down the street expecting to see Amanda Tapping or Kristin Kreuk. Ridiculous right? Well it turns out that the new film that AT is starring in - Random Acts of Romance - is premiering right down the street from where I'm living. Which is a little bit exciting. As in a lot. I doubt that she's even going to show up but I think I'll probably be spending that evening around there anyway... Just in case you know.

So these kinds of things are constantly on my mind as I'm walking around and I think it's going to continue as I travel. So expect a lot more posts about who or what I've seen over the next couple of months. I'm hoping that I will meet some fellow geeky people to hang out with because I'm really starting to miss my friends from Edinburgh where they would understand my obscure references to things.

On another note, we're getting very close to the end of the Ponds on Doctor Who. I've never really gotten along with the Ponds. Well mainly Amy. I guess I will always be a Rose and Ten kinda gal. Rory I love and I will be very sorry to see the back of but I'm really looking forward to seeing how Oswin is worked in, she seems like an amazing character and I love what Steven Moffat is doing to keep us all guessing. Next week's episode looks amazing as a send off for Rory and Amy though, not least because River is back and she is awesome. The Weeping Angels have to be one of the best baddies ever conceived and next week seems to get right back down to the nitty gritty of what makes them so terrifying, harking back to the first episode which they appeared in, Blink.

So I have lots to look forward to in the next couple of weeks and now that things have settled down a bit, I will definitely be writing more.

Disappointment and Elation all in a week.

Real life has been a killer of late but no more! 6 weeks and 2 days until I fly off to Vancouver, I'm so very very excited.

Things that I've seen lately - TDKR, The Amazing Spiderman and probably a couple more that I'll remember in a minute. First of all, TDKR was pretty amazing. I wasn't blown away but still it was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. I'm still a Dark Knight girl at heart and I think I was always going to compare the two films unfortunately. The third felt like it was just moving from big set piece to big set piece, there were no fun and games in between. Although Anne Hathaway did try her best as Catwoman. And there were a few casualties along the way, the main one being the atrocious lack of screen time given to Cillian Murphy (one of my favourite actors) as Scarecrow. I would have loved to have seen more of his character as the judge in the people's court.

I really enjoyed Spiderman as well, not just for the utterly adorable Andrew Garfield. It did what it said on the tin and I found it far more likeable than the 2002 version. So YAY!

We've had a new trailer for Doctor Who over the last couple of days which looks amazing. I have never really been a fan of Amy Pond but I seem to be liking her more as the series go on. Shame that we're about to lose her, and Rory of course.

Ooh, big excitement last weekend as I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Roadshow with NEIL GAIMAN as the voice of the Guide. Unbelievably exciting to be in the same room as him, I was floating above my seat for most of it I think. It was really good fun, with the original cast there for the voices and some amazing sound effects and live music as well.

I think that's it for the moment, I will hopefully be writing something more serious soon, there are a few ideas percolating in my head mainly to do with the awesome novel I'm reading at the moment. But all shall be revealed.

I'm off out to a nerdy comedy thing. *sigh* I love nerds.

Is 50 Shades of Grey good or bad for fanfic in general?

I haven't posted in ages and I'll apologise for that. I start a month-long course tomorrow, learning how to teach English so I've been prepping for that over the last week.

Geeky loveliness has had to take a bit of back seat over the last few weeks unfortunately. I managed to watch Prometheus and I've watched the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender which was fun. But more on that in a bit. The time travel fic is not going so well. There is a definite sense of writer's block when it comes to that fic and I'm not sure if it's to do with the time travel bit or whether it's a general inability to write with everything that's going on IRL at the moment. I posted another fic that I wrote in the space of a couple of days and has been floating around on my computer with nowhere to go. Here's a link if you fancy a read. It's SG-1 S/J of course.

In other news, all I seem to have heard about over the last couple of weeks is 50 Shades of Grey. Now this is an interesting story (not the book but the story behind the book). As you may know, this started off as Twilight (bleurgh) fan fiction and then got picked up by a publisher and with a few changes to the names of characters it was turned into a book - nay a TRILOGY. I have what can only be described as mixed feelings about the whole thing. After reading a synopsis of the book I decided that it would most definitely not be my kind of thing. I really don't mind a bit of smut but this just sounded horrifying to me. I'm all for expressing sexuality etc. but that amount of it and the story between the two main characters just didn't appeal to me. My flatmate read a sample of it and also mentioned that it was about the most badly written thing she'd ever read. This is unfortunate because I feel it's going to reflect badly on fanfic writers. Not only is the book mostly sex, feeding into the myth that all fanfic is sexualised slash!fic, it is terribly written, also feeding into the idea that all fanfic is badly written tripe. Neither of these things are remotely true about fanfic. A huge amount of fanfic is beautifully written and wonderfully creative, allowing people (as I have said before) to explore a universe and set of characters in a way that is very personal and expansive. We are the ones who are lucky enough to be allowed a glimpse into that person's view of a universe we all love. I think I may be a little spoiled by the Stargate fic universe because it does seem to be populated by a very high proportion of very good writers. Why aren't these people being published? Why is it the rubbish ones that are? I have read a couple of snippets from some interesting articles about the book and people seem to think that it could be good for feminism. Having been brandished as "mummy-porn", it seems to have opened a world of sexuality to some women so that they are far more comfortable talking about their own sexuality with other people. Nothing seems to be taboo after this book. Which is great. The more open people can be about that kind of stuff the better, I think. Although, I still have serious concerns about the level of writing and also what it means for the fanfic universe.

Moving on from that, I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender last week and I've finished it already and moved on to The Legend of Korra! I have enjoyed both series enormously, particularly Avatar. As I wrote on my Twitter feed, I immediately became a Aang and Katara shipper (SPOILER) and thank goodness there was confirmation at the end of the series because I might have cried if I'd found another series sans-confirmation. I even went so far as reading some Kataang (as it's called I think) fanfic this morning and was surprised to find some rather touching little stories. Obviously with the continuity of their story in Korra, I am even happier. I did feel slightly sorry for my friend, who was watching some of Avatar with me, as he bore the full brunt of a fangirl attack at various points (SPOILER ENDS). I would recommend both series to people whole-heartedly; they are thoughtful, clever and - as all good entertainment should - deal with some of life's big issues. Even though they are aimed at children, the series don't talk down to their audiences - the issues are dealt with in a mature manner. Korra deals with issues as modern as terrorism as well, something I found very interesting.

I'm not sure when I will get to post next. I'm sure something will spark off some ideas and I'll find time to rant about something else. Hopefully the time travel fic will have progressed. I really really hope it does. Anyway, leave a comment if you have an opinion about 50 Shades, it's nothing if not provocative.

Why is it so hard to get time travel right?

So I went to see Men in Black 3 with my mum last night. It's kind of a family thing as we've always watched these films together since the first one came out when I was little. Anyway, I enjoyed the film quite a lot. It was good fun, the pace was kept up all the way through and I swear Josh Brolin is some reincarnation of Tommy Lee Jones (can you have a reincarnation if you're not dead? Probably not.). There was humour in the right parts and enough touching scenes for Will Smith to show that he can make himself cry like a real actor. All of these things I appreciated. Apart from the time travel.

I have always been a little skeptical of films and shows when they start using time travel. Men in Black films are not particularly known for their complicated and intricate plots so when I saw that time travel was going to be a major plot point, I was concerned to say the least. Because time travel takes a lot of explanation and exhibition. There are rules that need to be discussed, some sort of technology that needs to be explained yadda yadda yadda. It all gets a little tiresome. But it all started off well in MIB 3, the idea was simple enough - beware of spoilers from now on by the way - Boris the Animal went back in time and killed K before he could arrest the earlier version of Boris. So J has to go back and stop future Boris from killing past K. Ok, maybe not so simple but it seems like that in the film. And this is where things start going a little... wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. The more I think about it the more annoyed I get with the plot. I know I probably shouldn't think too deeply about such a film but I say if you're going to use time travel try and do it in some sort of logical way. The main point that really got me ranting (much to my poor mum's annoyance) was a point in the final couple of scenes where J uses the time jump device to jump back 30 seconds in order to outsmart Boris and win a fight. A simple enough - and well-used - trick you might say. Well, yes, BUT in the scene, J jumps back with Boris and they find themselves in exactly the same positions as they were 30 seconds before except J now knows what Boris is going to do so he can beat him. But he's in the same body, as is Boris. Yet earlier in the film it's been shown that when one time jumps they don't re-inhabit their own body, they appear as a separate entity. So how can J just rewind time and re-inhabit his own body? The rules have already been set earlier in the film and this is a giant flout of those rules.

I probably didn't explain that very well but I doubt that I'm the only one who has noticed this. There were other issues, like why doesn't J remember K's face during his life after he meets him on the beach as a boy? Why doesn't Boris just use his own time-jump device to jump back again before he's killed? NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE EXPLAINED! And a child would notice them.

But this was really just an example I wanted to use. For me, there are very few programs or films that 'do' time travel well. There tend to be holes in the logic in just about every plot that you look at. The example that really comes to mind is SG-1's 'Moebius' episodes at the end of season 8. At the end of those episodes, it appeared that we had 3 different timelines. Do the original team end up dying back in Egypt 3000 years ago? Or is the team that we see at the end of the two episodes the one that continues in the show? If we go by the fact that they have the ZPM then it must be. But isn't that rather sad that we've lost the original team in  Egypt somewhere? In their timeline at least. There were so many questions surrounding those episodes that we never got answers to. I get that they were a bit of fun and we got to see the actors stretching their legs a bit but I wouldn't be much of a nerd if I didn't ask these questions would I?

As writers seem to have less fear about using time travel is it necessary for them to set out the general rules that they're going to use with the time travel technology? Does the person using it go back or forwards in time as an entire entity or do they simply re-inhabit their own body? Obviously if they're going far enough back they can't inhabit their own body. But what then? Are there moral issues involved when you're changing someone else's reality? This was broached in Stargate: Continuum and it wasn't something I'd really considered before, but was interesting nonetheless. We obviously have the comical side of it as we see in Back to the Future with Marty and his mum. There was a nice little nod to that film in MIB 3 by the way.

I think as people become more stringent about what they expect from shows, writers are going to have to become more intelligent about using time travel and the set of rules they use with it. I realise that the exhibition and explanation of these rules wouldn't make for captivating viewing but I think they're necessary for a satisfying experience. You want to come away from seeing something saying "that was really clever" not "why did he do that?" or "he could have just done that instead".

I will give it the writers of MIB 3, there were a couple of lovely touches, such as the alien "Griffin" who could see all the possible timelines and their outcomes at once. He was a wonderful character and a really interesting addition to the story.

In future (no pun intended), I would love to see a well-thought out story that makes it clear what is and isn't possible with time-travel in that universe. But I think I might have to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to this. So... I will attempt to write a short(ish) fic for SG-1 that includes an element of time travel and see just how difficult it is to do and to do right. I will keep you posted. This could take a while...

What is too far when it comes to fan fiction?

I've seen a couple of posts on Gateworld today about people having their fics taken down on fanfic.net and even their whole accounts. As such, there doesn't appear to be a reason behind it so far and people are starting to wonder what the cause of this sudden purge is. Is it due to adult/mature content? Not enough disclaimers or something else?

Being fairly new to this whole world of fanfic, I haven't really seen one of these purges before. Apparently there was one a little while ago on ff.net to do with mature content in stories, but things have backed off a lot lately.

But how does the argument go when it comes to fanfic about what is acceptable and what is not?

I think the outside world sees it as a dark, seedy world of slash!fic and desperate teens writing scenes full of lust and sex. But I think the reality is quite different to that. My personal experience with it certainly is. I ventured into the world of fanfic (as I've already mentioned in a couple of posts) due to a lack of confirmation when it came to Sam and Jack at the end of season 8 of SG-1. I'd seen a couple of vids showing the moments between them but there was still a big question. So when I discovered hundreds of stories from different people around the world showing the possibilities of what could/might have been, I was blown away. There were some that were better written than others. In the end I wrote my own fics, finding it let me express my creativity in a way I hadn't been able to do since university. And I met some lovely people too. So in my eyes, fanfic is definitely not a bad thing. Most people just want to explore their favourite shows/books/films in a different or their own way.

There is a lot of mature stuff out there. A LOT. But there's a lot of it that is very well written, whether it be violence or sex. I think it could be seen as a little weird to people outside of the world but with the rise of graphic sex and violence on television and in films, is it really that surprising that it would pop up in fandoms as it has been, I suspect, for years? The internet is surely the one place where we should be able to express ourselves fully without fear of reprisal from anyone. There is of course the question of intellectual property when it comes to fanfic, but I think most studios are happy enough as long as people don't claim that characters are their own. Most people will put up a simple disclaimer at the beginning of their stories or on their profiles. However, there have been worrying cases of people writing stories about actors as opposed to characters that they portray. I say worrying as people seem to be unable to grasp the difference between reality and the imagination. Can we judge this though as taking things too far? For me the answer is yes. Fanfic is about putting characters in situations and seeing how they would react. It's pure imagination and taking a show/film's universe to places that probably aren't possible on TV or on film. The stories about the actors in reality include their families, friends and in this particular case, sex.

So how is this stuff monitored? How is it censored? Well, mostly it is down to the author to self-regulate. On ff.net, the author sets their own rating and this is the case on most, if not all, sites. On ff.net, M-rated stories don't appear in the normal lists unless you specifically search for them. So if adult-themed stories are the reason for this latest purge, surely it is up to the site administrators to set better guidelines or better safeguards when it comes to the very graphic content. Are they trying to protect kids? Because I think that whole idea is a bit of a fallacy. Kids, teenagers particularly, will find this stuff if they are really looking for it. It's curiosity and I think a lot of the time they will scare themselves with what they find and back off. If not, then maybe the parents should be keeping a closer eye on what their children are looking at online if they don't want them to have access to that kind of content. Having come to fanfic later than some, I think I've approached it with a level head and been able to judge for myself when something has been taken too far. But I would worry that some teenagers might not be able to see the subtle line between taking an obsession beyond that land of make-believe.

I realise that it must be weird for actors to see characters they have brought to life being used in some of the ways they are in the world of fanfic. Books are obviously less of an issue as the characters are just that, characters. But what if that book is made into a film or TV series? The actors are then linked with these characters and it could be that that is how a fan would picture that character. Said fan then writes a really graphic sex scene involving that character. The actors face/body is then what the readers imagine in that scene. Wouldn't that be strange? But people have sexual fantasies about celebrities all the time. They are, mostly, seen as beautiful people and men and women alike will fantasise about them. So how is fanfic creepier or more sordid? If anything it's surely less creepy if the story uses the character as opposed to the actor in 'real-life'. And so we come back around to that story I heard about that was written about two real actors. At best it's slander and at worst it's behaviour indicative of someone who blurs that line between reality and imagination.

So, to sum up, I don't have an issue with fanfic that's graphic. Life is graphic, as are a lot of the films and TV shows we see at the moment. I do have a problem with fic that confuses reality with imagination. That could cause offence to people who are just working, trying to portray a character in the best way they can.

Sites shouldn't be censoring fic. Yes, there should be accurate and timely warnings about what is featured in a fic and in part this is up to the authors themselves. If a complaint is received by the site admins about a fic, then it should be followed up and the author should be included in the discussion. Not all fics are going to please everyone. But the wonderful thing is that people can also choose NOT to read something. And so although I find the "real-life" fics disgusting and degrading and it would be very interesting to speak to the author about their motivations, I realise that they are out there but choose to not read them or support them in any way. The internet is full of crazies. It doesn't mean you need to interact with them.

I think I learnt my morals from sci-fi...

The last few days haven't really been much fun. I've been wrestling with the unpleasant situation two of my closest friends have put me in and it's made me realise a lot of things not only about them but about myself too.

Friend one is my flatmate and closest friend. Friend two is a fairly new friend but also close. Friend one and friend two have hooked up on a couple of occasions now. Not a problem. Except friend two has a girlfriend already and friend one knows this. Yet she's let this continue knowing full well that friend two is unavailable. Not cool, I said. Not cool at all.

I don't want to bore you with any more detail (there's a lot of detail). My main problem with this is the cheating bit. Yep, it makes me pretty angry. Not "Hulk smash!" angry. But angry enough. And the reason for this? They don't really see too much of an issue with it. And don't really want to do much about it.

This all led to a big argument between me and friend one. I mean an hours-long argument. It sucked but did make me realise how different my morals are from other people's. Especially friend one's morals as it turned out. And I came to a conclusion as to why this might be. I seemed to have learnt my morals from sci-fi.

I tend to see things in a very black and white way. Right and wrong. If you doing something right - YAY, the Earth/universe is safe again! If you do something wrong, you need to fix it. If you've wronged someone, you need to fix things with them, either with the truth or by finding some way to right it. These are simple rules and if you look at a lot of sci-fi this is what you see. Even if the righting part isn't easy or means some sort of self-sacrifice. In Stargate, the main characters are forever sacrificing themselves so the world can stay saved. In Star Trek, Janeway enforces the Prime Directive even when her crew is thousands of light-years away from the Federation. In comics, superheroes stand for everything that is right and yes they get it wrong sometimes but they will always endeavour to right that wrong. In Doctor Who, the Doctor is always urging us to do the right thing.

So I guess my question is, why is it so wrong to think like this? Why can't we apply these kind of rules and morals to our real lives? People will say that things aren't as simple as that, that you can't be that naive but I say why not? If you do something to hurt someone, make it up to them. Be honest as much as possible. Don't intentionally set out to hurt people in the first place.

Of course we always have our morally questionable heroes in sci-fi - Mal Reynolds for one. But isn't he always as honourable as he can be? He does bad things but he either rights that wrong or owns up to it. The example that's really sticking in my head at the moment is Kara and Lee in Battlestar Galactica. We are desperate to see them get together but when they eventually do get some action it's when Kara and Sam are together and Dee and Lee are too. So they are both cheating. Is it ok for them to be together because we know they're in love? No is the short answer but we're happy for them none the less. Until Kara gets an attack of conscience and runs off and marries Sam. She does the right thing so I'm happy for her, there's even a bit of sacrifice we all know it's wrong for her and Lee. But it doesn't stop there, they carry on cheating until it comes to the point of them needing to leave their partners to continue their relationship guilt free. Things do stop though when Kara admits she doesn't believe in divorce and Lee won't cheat on his wife anymore. We want them to get together but understand that their morals won't let them. And let's face it, BSG was about the best sci-fi show around for showing humanity in all its glory. Or not.

This question obviously extends into other areas as well, not least religion. And it has been dealt with in various ways but that's not my point.

I want to know why friend number one thought I was being judgmental for thinking about what they'd done by my own set of morals. I think I was waiting for some sort of reaction from them that would show me that they regretted what they'd done and had realised what a horrible thing it was. But I haven't got that reaction from either of them. And because of this, my view of them both and their morals has shifted. Probably towards the worse. 

I'm sorry for the ramble but I needed to say this. I will continue to try and do the right thing in my life. I hope you do to.