Life? Vids? Ships? Typing? Gaming?

[beccatoria]

So, it's been like, a week since I posted, which is...silly. But honestly, nothing much has happened. I went back to work, which kind of sucked, but not so much as either being broke or having to work full-time, and I console myself with the knowledge that yes, I am actually paid to sit there and type as fast as a robot. (One day I'm gonna clock my typing speed again; I totally think I can break 100wpm now, my last temp test had me at 88, but the copy-typing sheet fell off the stand in the middle of the test, so I had to stop, bend down, pick it up and reattach it (which was fiddly) right in the middle. Plus that was before 8 months of going to work and typing like a machine.)

Things that have been happening in my life that you may or may not care about:

- OMGZ my D&D game is reaching the final big showdown after like, five years of playing. This is v. exciting. My law-abiding, chaos-worshipping (because what's the point in having faith in something that makes sense? That's just logic!) paladin has the hilarious choice of either doing what her chaotic god wants her to do and maintain the order of the multiverse, or let the lawful god win and plunge everything into mayhem. Also there might be a fight. And a giant cat-tiger man with wings. And a robot who looks like Lucy Lawless and has reincarnation and reproductive issues that Kev made up before Xena ever showed up on BSG. Though currently said robot is being held captive by an ex-pacifist squid-creature that we might have accidentally cursed with 10,000 lost and cursed swords that we agreed to dispose of. AND LET THAT BE A LESSON AGAINST THE DANGERS OF DUMPING YOUR WASTE INTO THE OCEAN. Also in this game I am married to a realtor.

- VIDS. It might be a while before I post something but that's only cus I'm working on something big. I could say more, but I'd have to kill you. Or possibly someone would declare war on me. And that was totally my plan. Um. The point is, I'm vidding loads which is half of why I'm not here, but it's...not exactly secret, but will pack more punch if I don't go on about it loads until it's done. So I shalln't.

- SHIPS? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what the hell has happened, but I appear to have acquired a new 'ship. *glances at icon, courtesy of frolicndetour* I should clarify, I don't ship Tory/Cally. I ship Tory/Cylon!Cally. I blame a combination of frolicndetour, merrykk, the stories both of them wrote and feminism. SRSLY. TORY/CYLON!CALLY, providing disgruntled straight girls with girlslash goggles since 2009 (before that it was down to Laura to provide them, often with the help of her teaching assistant).

Now, I know what you're all saying. Well, okay, I probably don't, but I'm going to pretend I do. You're all saying, "But Becka, you don't even like Cally all that much. In fact, I distinctly remember you thinking that Cally would be a shitty choice for the fifth..."

And this is true. But then 4.5 happened and I understood the five's backstory and I would like to point out a number of awesome things that are awesome if it is Cally, not Chief who is a Cylon:

1) Better robot gender balance.
2) No Nicky retcon.
3) They can't make both of their robot women into sexist cliches! Wait *glances at other robot women* It's at least less likely.
4) WHUT, some actual female bonding on this show?!
5) I honestly think that minus the homicide, the relationship between Tory and Cally could have been fascinating. Neither of them is a particularly empathetic character, both are vicious in their own ways, specifically about whichever "family" they owe loyalty to at that point in time, and further, at the start of S4, both of them are increasingly isolated and want a place to belong.
6) Come ON, watching Cally deal with being a Cylon? With all her hatred of them? From a character perspective, rather than a show-wide perspective, she's actually a really interesting choice. (Though I concede that from a show-wide perspective she kind of lacks oomph, but then, so did all the others, individually.)

(There's also a part of me intrigued by the possibility that Cally is the fifth instead of Ellen, but didn't wake up in Crossroads cus she was drugged up. Then when Tory kills her she resurrects on the baseship. This means that Nicky isn't challenging to Hera's hybridity because he's a pure cylon like Liam. We lose out on Ellen's amazing relationship with Cavil, but equally she's not going to come back and cause all kinds of FAIL to break loose and seeing CALLY try to embrace her son, Al from Quantum Leap and also have to deal with trying to reconcile her newfound love of Boomer with her hatred of her from her mortal life would almost make up for that. In this scenario, obviously Cally was a bitter child genius lab assistance and protege of Tory... But equally that leaves less room for hilarious IN YOUR FACE GENDERFAIL! romance between Tory and Cally as, um, airlocking obviously still happens. Plus then we'd still end up with the same number of GIRLZ and we want more of them. So sorry Chief, you are the weakest cylon, GOODBYE.)

Um...

That's the end of my weird update.

Comments

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

What is it about vidding that makes one so sekrit? Hee! I'm like that too. Actually, I'm like that with writing and vidding. I have all these thoughts while vidding but then it's all sekrit. And then after I'm all about the shiny and forget the angst. :-) But there's nothing like a viewers fresh reaction with no influence from me. I guess I stay sekrit because of that.

You go on with your Cylon!Cally. She would have been soooooooooo pissed! It would have been awesome. :-) I didn't care much for Cally at the time but I'm thinking about her lately.

Will they dump the Chief? Wow, he loses out on former 2,000-years-ago girlfriend and current wife and babymama. Interesting. :-)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure what it is either - I think it's half wanting a genuine audience response and also fear of talking it up and then not being able to deliver? Whereas if there's no expectation there can't be disappointment?

It's interesting, I didn't really like Cally that much during the series either. I sort of wanted to, but sort of like Athena, I felt there was a tension between the way the show portrayed her and the way I saw her but unlike Athena I never really saw the likelihood of that being explored. But like you I think a lot more about her now. I think part of that is the epic genderfail stuff that ended up encompassing her as part of the quadrangle of fail so finding ways of redeeming her and making her awesome is...really rewarding? Or something? ;)

(Also, your icon! It is as it is labeled: SHINY!)

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Gosh I miss roleplaying.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad for you that you have to miss it and can't play! It's just a rewarding and awesome hobby if you have a good group and a good GM. And unlike television, your favourite characters don't get horrifyingly shafted and you can control the story. There's something powerful about that. The downside is that the people who can share those stories with you is a lot smaller, but...eventually you really do end up with a group of people who share these collaborative stories and they become like...personal myths, with personal iconic characters and stuff?

And...um, insane crap as mentioned above.

If you're ever down in my general area, you should totally join us for a game!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yep. We used to play a lot when we were younger, my old group of school friends. There wasn't much to do out here, so we found this way of making our own stories up.

But people move away and drop out of your life. And now of that old group of friends I just have Scott and Georgina, and we used to play a bit just the three of us. But three players is really one too few for rpgs to work I find?

Tried to do gaming online for a while, but it didn't really work. The pace was too slow.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that, same thing happened to us; our gaming group has shrunk from like...7 to 3 or something due to stuff like that. Though we are lucky in that we have a few other people in the area now we can corral into our crazy games.

I do think that 4 - 5 is the best size but 3 can totally work if you have a good group who enjoy gaming together and putting in the effort. You have to scale things down sometimes, or the GM has to put in more effort and give you a few NPCs, but...in some ways, at least you know who you can count on to keep up with the game?

This game is actually really exciting to be finishing because it was one we started back when our most recent fourth player, Danny, ditched on us and we thought it would just be a small game for a while to tide us over, but...as he left us completely it turned into this crazy epic tale, just the three of us making it up together, which now holds a lot of meaning for all of us, because it was told during some very difficult times in all our lives, when we lost a lot of people and equilibrium?

Currently we're really not gaming much at all, just because of how Kev's doing right now, but we're so close to the end of this game, like...one or two games away, that he decided he really wanted to pull it together, finish it and...send it out properly.

I'm really glad we're doing it. It feels right.

But yes, three is a very unwieldy number unless you all know and trust each other a lot.

I don't like online gaming so much either for much the same reasons, though I did it for a while too when I didn't have an RL group.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

It sounds fun, how long has your campaign been going on for?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

About four years but we haven't been playing fulltime that whole time - there've been long hiatuses when we've been living in different cities or even different continents so it's hard to tell how long it would have taken us otherwise?

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

*gleefully accepts blame*

and also have to deal with trying to reconcile her newfound love of Boomer with her hatred of her from her mortal life would almost make up for that.

Also, I'm thinking the Eights were modeled after Cally. Might explain the similar taste in men, maternal instincts, and tendencies to go on shooting sprees when under stress. :D? :D?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

*gleefully foists more blame!*

Also, I'm thinking the Eights were modeled after Cally. Might explain the similar taste in men, maternal instincts, and tendencies to go on shooting sprees when under stress. :D? :D?

OMGYES.

And then if Cavil ever got the chance to chew out Cally as opposed to Ellen on why she designed the Eights that way it'd be EVEN MORE HILARIOUS.

Or like, Cavil would be talking to Boomer all, "Actually, by the time they got to Eight it was Cally's turn to choose. She decided to be narcissistic and make you in her own image. Could have been worse though. She could have decided to design you after her arthritic MOTHER."

XD? :D?

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

Chief, you are the weakest cylon, GOODBYE

It is so easy to drop him. He did nothing. Worse Cylon than Tory, and they seriously tried to make her useless. Oddly enough, the show gypped us of all the "We're Cylons now?" panic from most of the Final Five. We got Sam and we got a little Tigh...the other three just were. I suppose you could handwave that Chief (and potentially Cally) were just so bitter that they didn't ever really deal with it.

And I really like your idea for Cally as the Fifth, though Ellen is kind of my secret BSG obsession. Though both of them, being non-traditional beauties, are excellent additions to the Cylon clan of Pretty

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I know and it's so frustrating since he really did have a lot of potential. Before Crossroads he was probably the one for whom it was the most interesting development, what with his previous associations with Boomer, his paranoia about being a Cylon in the season two finale, his finding the Temple of Five... But after that, we don't really see anything. I mean, I did actually quite like his quiet acceptance/depression/indifference toward the end of S4.0, like, when he was standing on Earth quietly smiling like it was all a joke. But it was so subtle, it never went anywhere. Tigh had the conflict with Adama and later got a lot of scenes with fully Cylon Ellen, Tory, well, they made her evil which sucked but at least it was a story and a response to it all, and Sam had the issues with Kara and then got shot and had to tell the whole backstory.

Tyrol really doesn't do anything with his cylonness. We're left to like...make up why he's suddenly all up for jumping away with the basestar or his reaction to losing Nicky and stuff like...maybe that was the same as his "peace" in 4.0? For someone who completely took over a bunch of women's storylines, he...was remarkably bland, or at least, disinteresting in terms of his cylonness. If that makes sense.

I have to give credit to frolicndetour for Cally as the fifth, though, I think she mentioned some of the awesome possibilities therein in the comments of her post.

As to Ellen, I'm mainly for swapping out Chief for two reasons, one being better gender balance and two being that I don't want to lose Ellen either. Originally I was really disappointed with the choice because it felt totally random, but I completely ate my words once I saw No Exit and the way that worked and the thing with Cavil and what happened on New Caprica and stuff and the crack of it being her really worked.

I just wish...they hadn't screwed it up and made her so...evil afterwards. Cus yeah, I know, Ellen has always been Ellen, but that doesn't mean she has to regress to a really weird level. Plus...we never even really see her being cylony after that either. I loved the fragments we got - her performing the cylon funeral or mentioning computery stuff when Sam was a hybrid, but in general, there was far too much of reverting Ellen to a drunken floozy and far too little of her being an awesome robot like she was in No Exit (where she was totally ALSO still Ellen Tigh, a slightly drunken sort-of-floozy!)

So yes. Ellen. I <3 her as a robot and thus it must remain so!

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Before Crossroads he was probably the one for whom it was the most interesting development, what with his previous associations with Boomer, his paranoia about being a Cylon in the season two finale, his finding the Temple of Five...

I would have said this too, and that was at a point when I did love Chief. Even through Revelations with the sardonic "Ahahaha, the universe is frakking with us again" had that potential, but then:

Tyrol really doesn't do anything with his cylonness.

Was massively disappointing and sadly became the default for the rest of the Five too. Ellen, Sam, and Tory were all doing potentially interesting robotic things and Tigh was amusingly still NOT, but I can really not remember much of anything Chief DID significantly for a whole string of episodes (QOF blocking I suspect). I think he infected them all with boring. *nods*

Also Ellen. <3. I'm torn for how much potential AWESOME there is in Cally as the Fifth, but I really couldn't stand to lose her, even with how much emotional investment I had in her original final scene.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much all Tyrol did was turn his "ahahaaha, the universe is frakking with us again," attitude into one of psychotic woman-hating.

All he did in 4.5 was lose Nicky, never bother to see him again, then boredly fix Galactica for a while. Then he lost Boomer, boredly sat in a cell for a while and murdered Tory. Which like, okay, that's some stuff, but not ROBOT stuff, and the whole time he was bored and I was offended. SO BLAH.

Also Ellen. <3. I'm torn for how much potential AWESOME there is in Cally as the Fifth, but I really couldn't stand to lose her, even with how much emotional investment I had in her original final scene.

This is exactly how I feel! *TORN*

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

*is impressed by your robotic tying skills*

TORY/CYLON!CALLY, providing disgruntled straight girls with girlslash goggles since 2009

TRUE. And up until the homicide it was a potentially fascinating relationship angle, a la Nicole's Jolene vid, that I was never silly enough to think they'd do that awesomely. D: (But still has potential in either alterna-canon :D)

*is saddened by the lack of multiple women with personal robotic crisis's having plot*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

*is saddened by the lack of multiple women with personal robotic crisis's having plot*

It's a travesty in modern television! ROBOT WOMEN AND THEIR SUPPORTERS NEED TO UNITE! We need badges and a campaign. And possibly a treasurer.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

I continue to be half-amused and half-disturbed by Kev's foretelling of BSG in your RP game. Except in a way that didn't end up sucking.

VIIIIIIDS. Sarah Connor is not afraid of a preemptive strike. In fact, her entire philosophy of life is based on preemptive strikes. *eyes you*

Genderfail, making straight girls a little bit gay since Battlestar Galactica!

This is a content-less comment.

What?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I continue to be half-amused and half-disturbed by Kev's foretelling of BSG in your RP game.

Me too! I also told you about how I accidentally made up a character that most of Kev's plot twists turned into a weird mirror of Laura Roslin years before BSG too, right? She stole magical babies and was the leader of her nearly-destroyed people-by-accident, and was a reluctant prophet and hybridised herself with the enemy to survive, and had great hair and hung out on a flying boat. o_O

Though in the most recent game, mostly I just got into a cage-fight with an octopus. Then rescued Not!Xena so that we could head off and let her mess with the Resurrection Hub passage of souls through the multiverse.

VIIIIIIDS. Sarah Connor is not afraid of a preemptive strike. In fact, her entire philosophy of life is based on preemptive strikes. *eyes you*

SARAH CONNOR SHOULD DAMN WELL BRACE HERSELF.

...wait. Does trash-talking ruin the element of surprise...?

This is a content-less comment.

This was a content-less post. TOUCHE.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see what your working on vid-wise.

Tory/cylon!Cally completely works and it rather poetic. I like the idea of Cally being a Cylon a lot.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't disappoint! I can't wait for you to post your next vid. :p

Yeah, the idea of Cally being a cylon is totally awesome as soon as you stop and think about it and don't like, reflexively dismiss it as silly (which, okay, I admit, I may have previously done...)

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine your vid will disappiont. :)

I'm posting Monday, I swear it.

Cally being Cylon could have been brillant considering what she did to Boomer. It would have been a bit of a retread because she was so anti-Cylon that could have been like the Final Four again.

[samstareagle.livejournal.com]

S4 was Cally's nightmare induced by her horrible allergic reaction to algae coupled with her bum-A husband playing the radio all hours of the night. Notice how all of a sudden Hotdog was her BabyDaddy and the Humans and Cylons were dancing in the fields with cave people and Kara turned into a pigeon? Does that level of crazy-A wonk happen more in RL or while you're having a bad food dream?

I rest my case. :P

Oh, and to be serious, the bit in her funeral about the LOK being as many and varied as mortal men basically points to one glaring concept...Humans in BSG WERE the LOK, were immortal, and were so via quantum/brane/string physics. Cylons were construct forms of consciousness using the same rules, thus the difference/similarities in their existences. There's more of it here...http://samstareagle.livejournal.com/17008.html

That being said, Cally being a Cylon would have been seriously brilliant. Or Racetrack, or Seelix, or any other STRONG woman so that it wouldn't become a totally sausage fest by the end. :P

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I can't remember who came up with it but I read an awesome hypothesis at one point that 4.5 was D'Anna's crazy dying dream post-4x11... ;)

I think your idea is interesting, though I'm not entirely sure how it would work; but then, my theory involves the hybrids jumping through realities and changing them and the Old Hybrid from Razor being the weird, secret puppetmaster, so I'm not really one to talk. ;)

[samstareagle.livejournal.com]

Like I put somewhere in the reply to that, it is WAAAY easier to explain visually since I need so many admittedly cumbersome words to explain what I'm talking about in it...;) So must get on that. :)

And yes, it is just my take on it, and it IS a made up fantasy world to begin with, so it's not like anything in it would probably ever be of any use in getting you back and forth to the office in RL any easier. :P

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

I wish I had any inkling of energy left for BSG femslash so I could enjoy this twilight AU ship. but sadly, I do not -- I am so OUT. what has the world come to, when YOU are shipping girls more than ME?!

let's be happy that I seem to have inexhaustible enthusiasm for BSG vidding.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I'M PICKING UP YOUR COSMIC BSG GIRLSLASHING SLACK.

...it's not my fault. You gave me a pair of girlslash goggles and I discovered they were a rather comforting remedy for genderfail.

let's be happy that I seem to have inexhaustible enthusiasm for BSG vidding.

INDEED. *clings to you*

Though if that ever ceases to be the case, I'm sure we'll cope. Just hopefully not before Hera gets that educational video... :p