Nothing that can't be fixed...

Ah, academic procrastination, how I've missed you!  On the up side, I'm checking the ol' FList (the whole not-doing-academic-procrastination thing tends to impede this doing the semester)... on the downside, I have an English paper due tomorrow, and it's, oh... call it two-thirds written.  I should be able to get it finished over lunch tomorrow.  Maybe.  Geek Central (the 2-4 tables in the campus common room where my scruffy band of shiny object seekers hang)  can be a bit loud, but that's where my peeps are at, yo!  I'm saving my sequestered-in-the-library act until finals.

I'm watching American Idol right now...  Is it just me, or is it really unfair that for the little opening number routine, all the girls got cute individual outfits chosen to go with their "look"... and the guys all wore identical suits? 

Speaking of Idol, how pretty is Australian Guy?  (No, I don't know their names yet.  Except Danny Noriega, but that's because of my extreme dislike of him.)  And I thought he was Jim Morrison-y before he sang Doors songs!  Cheery Dreadlock Boy is quite cute and pleasant-sounding, as well.

I'm liking The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  I think I'd like it more if I wasn't so addicted to the first to movies, mostly for casting reasons - ain't nobody as badass as Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and I thought the new Kyle from last episode's flashback/forward was downright skanky and un-Reeselike.  I like Derek and ex-fiance guy, though.

OMG!  Peter DeLuise is on Supernatural!

*ahem*  We've had free CW for the last few weeks, which has been fun.  The two eps of we've seen of Smallville were kickass - especially Black Canary.  Supernatural hasn't impressed me that much, but I think that I'm becoming addicted to it anyways on merit of the prettiness that is Dean.

I'm working on my Jericho fanmix again, and I've started a Deathstroke one as well.  On the subject, does anybody know where I can *cough* "acquire" a copy of Oasis' cover of "Heroes"?  For general listening purposes, Bowie is still best, but just doesn't work in the Jericho mix.

I could say more, but my battery has gone kaput, and I don't feel like running between my desk and the living room during commercials.  TTFN!

So, I woke up at 7am-ish, entirely more awake than I'd like to be.  After about twenty minutes of pretending to sleep, I remembered - hey, Doctor Who all day today.  So I clambered out of bed, motivated by that same impulse that drives small children to get up earlier on Saturdays than on any other day.  Figured I'd have time for breakfast, then I'd settle in for mind-numbing hours of TARDIS fun.

Dear BBC America,
If you are planning on airing your 7-hour Doctor Who marathon starting at 1pm on Saturday, fine.  Just don't advertise it as being "all day."  Thanks.
Sincerely,
Disappointed Person Doing Homework

:P  It's like they canceled Saturday morning.  Big meanies.

On the upside, I'm almost finished with the first draft of my paper on Romeo and Juliet.  Not bad for having started it before I was halfway through my cup of coffee this morning.  Though it's a little harder to write as an academic paper, rather than as the post I was originally planning (something about staying on-topic and avoiding excessive sarcasm).  I think I'll still post it to LJ once I get my grade back. 

::sighs:: Only fifteen minutes until DW is actually on.  Somehow, goofing off in the afternoon seems less fun when you know you're just going to use the commercials to write page citations.

P.S.  Have I ever mentioned that Doctor Who has become the theme show for my outlook on the world?  Not my favorite show, just my theme show.  It's like a theme song, only a show.

So I qualify for an exemption from English 102 (Composition II).  But I have to write a five-page research paper in order to get it.

Thursday afternoon, I finally came up with an idea (ie, something I actually wanted to research).  Problem is, all I have for a starting point is bugger all and a pet theory.  So I need help (please?).

My theory is that some of most noteworthy (or at least most common) discriminatory offenses (racism, sexism, etc.) in mass-market media entertainment are strongly correlated with attempts to alleviate accusations of same.  Examples:

Sometime last fall (IIRC), there was a metafandom kerfuffle about the lack of characters of color in fanfic.  I don't remember how it started, but I remember that there were a lot of people who admitted to not writing characters of color because they were so afraid of Getting them Wrong.  I didn't pay much attention to this phenomenon at the time, but I thought of it almost immediately when I started considering the next item.

I've recently encountered a lot of (justified, but sometimes overblown) complaints about sexism in comic books, many of them centering on Robin IV.  Otherwise known as the first Girl Robin.  It makes sense that a girl would be a Robin eventually, as people have been complaining about the Batman comics' boys-only cast for years.  But this puts a girl in the sidekick role, and one must always remember the Golden Rule of Sidekicks: they exist to be abused and to provide angst for the hero.  Not a big deal when the sidekick is one of a hundred other male characters, but when it's one of the relatively few female characters?  Then it's a problem.  Disclaimer:  I admit to not having read the books where Stephanie appeared as Robin (I was quite fond of her Spoiler days, though), so I could be missing something, but this my take on the situation.  (And keep in mind she lasted more than twice as long as Jason.)

See what I'm getting at here?  Good intentions ------->  Hell.

I talked very briefly with my Sociology professor (we both had other classes to get to) about this concept, and she seemed to think it was worth looking into a bit further.  But like I said, I don't know where to start.  I've never noticed any research on this subject (or this variation of it).  I ask you, o great and powerful internet-peoples, to please give me recs.

I need citeable sources.  Books, articles, any credible source I can present to a professor.  Hell, if you are a credible source (ie, professional writer, academic who's noticed this) and wouldn't mind giving a statement/interview, that would be great, too.  Email me.  (It's probably best to go through my LJ email, so you don't accidentally get junk-filtered.)

Thank you very much! 

P.S.  If you link to this post, you will make me a very very happy bunny.  Thanks!

You know how yesterday I said that a particular yellowjacket was cute?  Well, I think that some little wasp-type thing (only a little bigger than a sweat bee, but wasp-shaped and with a stinger to match) heard abut it and got offended.  The little bastard managed to land on the inside of my pants without me noticing when I put them on, and stung me at least four times before I could get them off again.  Ouch.  At least I'm not allergic.  Yet.  Between family history and the number of times I've gotten stung, it's pretty much a given that I'll start to react someday.

On the upside, my financial aid check showed up.  ::happy dance::  There are two ways to look at it: either I have paid for my laptop and come out fifty bucks richer, or I ignore the whole computer-expense thing and pretend I have easily enough money for gas, next semester's books, and to spare.  Either way, it's very difficult to resist the urge to celebrate by way of an item of JM (to readers at the Wood: if you need to ask, you may not be geeky enough for me to tell you) audio-visual goodness.  They're (as some may know) very expensive ($30 for DVD, $20 for CD,  either $45 or $30 for the first Dresden Files audio, plus shipping and handling - eek!).  I wish I was better at resisting, but everyone is squeeing so...  Somebody stop me?


[Poll #822750]

There are a couple other things I want to ask, but I either can't put my finger on exactly what they are or they fall into the category of My Own Problem (like what the frilly heck do I do with Xander?  The bunny hasn't told me).