Stuff

[shipperx]

:

* The show is really being awesome these days.
* Smoke Monster Returns!... and pulls off arms now (both eww and hilarious at the same sick time)
* Jin and Sawyer meet up - yay!
* Called weeks ago that Eloise would be Faraday's mum.
* Not a great surprise that Charlotte bought the farm.
* Aww! Loved Jin giving up his ring and swearing that Sun shouldn't come (and is this why Locke never contacted Sun? I'm looking forward to the rest of that story.)
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I may be all alone here but I think the opening scene of the Spike comic sounds kind of awesome ( spoilers can be found here in fenderlove's LJ) It strikes me as a cross of the X-Files episode "Hollywood A.D.", meta on remakes like BSG (where clearly, Spike is the new Starbuck. Hee!) and meta on Bruckheimer. And, the truth is, I can see Nick Cage as Angel... though it's a completely different kind of bad hair.
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I can haz new refrigerator! Yay!
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Ground level view of the stimulus:
I work in the construction industry, specifically the school construction industry and on the ground I can tell you that, yes, schools have been pulling back. Our firm has had a couple of jobs pulled off the drawing board recently because the school system in question simply doesn't have enough money to go around for school maintenance as well as paying teachers and day-to-day costs (and we're not even in one of the direly strapped areas of the country). Also, we had a medium-small project go out to bid about month ago and there were 22 construction companies bidding. This means that there are a lot of contractors hurting for work. In boom days we had bids where by the time bids came around, there was only one or two bidders on the job. (And that was like... two years ago). The usual numbers of bidders is 5-8. To have 22 construction companies trying to win a contract means that there are a lot of small, medium, and large construction companies in pain (heck, we had a consultant today say that in a meeting in Georgia last week, there were 100 different architecture firms interviewing to win a contract to design a prison.) So, yeah, whatever ideological screaming is going on, there are government construction projects (and school projects are always government projects) languishing for lack of adequate funding. The school I'm currently working on has been waiting for funding since 2006 and it's replacing a rural school that hasn't seen significant upgrade since 1962! And considering the interest in bid dates for the project, there are clearly many, many contractors in dire need of work (yes, WORK). That's not ideology. That's just the real world.

Honestly, listening to critics lately, I've grown to wonder when did not only construction become "not a real job", but when in the holy heck did engineering and architecture become "not real jobs"? For a fictional job, it sure demands a lot of mine (and others) time.

Comments

[rahirah]

I think the opening scene sounds funny as heck, myself.

It occurred to me that Locke could easily keep the letter of his promise to Jin by just telling Ben to lure Sun in. And yes, major awesomeness. All those people whinging about the 'lack of interpersonal relationships' (i.e., no more tedious and annoying Jack/Sawyer/Kate triangle) can go stuff themselves. WHEEEEEE!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

See, when I read it, I giggled. I can totally see Spike griping about being made the girl and Angel the big strapping hero. I look forward to reading it.

And you're probably right about Locke and Ben... and I do not believe that Locke is really, most sincerely dead.

And I hate the Jack/Sawyer/Kate triangle. I much rather the whole adventure, time travel, and smoke monsters (though I'm a total sucker for Jin/Sun as starcrossed lovers, so I'm not totally relationship averse).

[rahirah]

I'm all for Jin/Sun, Desmond/Penny, Rose/Bernard, Hurley/Dead Chick... but I think I just hate triangles on principle, especially triangles where I really don't like any of the characters involved. I think I dislike Sawyer the least, because he's occasionally funny, but really I just want to slap all three of them on a regular basis.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

See, that's my thing about the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle -- there is no good solution to it. I do not want Jack/Kate and the world of smug. Conversely, I don't actually want Kate/Sawyer because, though I do enjoy Sawyer, it's not a character-love like Spike. Spike was a complex character who had all these layers that I enjoy. Sawyer is purely situational. I enjoy him as I watch the show because he gets to gripe about things, he gets to mock stuff, he irks the hell out of Jack, and generally I find that stuff enjoyable. But do I believe that a Sawyer/Kate hook-up would lead anywhere, or that Sawyer would be a viable romantic partner for anyone? No. He's mostly a jerk (but fun in his situation, jerk). His edges may have been eased a bit here and there, but he is what he is ... and that's good enough for me as far as the show goes. But, please, don't ask me to think that Sawyer/Kate could be anything actually positive. And then there's the problem like Kate and her endless indecision -- I do not care.

So, basically, I enjoy seeing Sawyer bitch. I even find pleasure in Jack always being wrong about everything. But do not ask me to give a damn who Kate "chooses" to be with, because I don't, and if I did, I don't think "winning" Kate would be a good thing, anyway.

Love Juliet, though. (Not that I want Jack or Sawyer with her romantically either. I just think she's generally more interesting than Kate.:)

I too look to Jin/Sun, Desmond/Penny, and Rose/Bernard to provide the starcrossed romantic moments. Those are relationships that I can root for.

[rahirah]

Juliet, yes, definitely. And Rousseau (wah!)

I think I would like Kate better if she were played by an actress who had more than one expression. I swear, no matter what happens, she just has this sort of blank, kicked-puppy look. And if they'd quit flipping back and forth between ice-cold badass and fluttering damsel.

[shapinglight]

I like the sound of that opening scene too. It's Spangel by proxy. Sort of.