Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

It was just going to be a quick lie down, but after an hour of dozing I got a call from Dad to say he's thinking of coming to Melbourne for Christmas and is that cool? And that threw my pattern out, so when I went back to sleep, it was for three more hours.

On the upside, I had a dream that there was a movie about River Song and Prince Zuko going to a waterpark together, and having to save a baby (...possibly theirs) from a shapeshifting villain who sometimes looks like Mr Snuffalupagus. No, I don't know either, but it was awesome.

If I didn't stop to sleep for four hours in the middle of the day, I'd probably get more done. Like, I have a project that I should probably make a start on one of these decades. But it's been a long few weeks, and it's nice to have a day where I don't have to go anywhere or do anything.

Here are some thoughts on television, re: small things that are quite significant, but the audience is left to put the pieces together:

Avatar: In the flashbacks in "The Storm", Aang is playing pai sho with Monk Gyatsu, and he's employing the white lotus tile. A couple of episodes (and a hundred years) later, Iroh mentions that the white lotus and associated gambits are considered outdated and old fashioned.

Mad Men: I think it's a second or third season episode that opens with a montage of characters getting ready. Betty and Joan, women of the fifties, are wearing stockings. Peggy is pulling on pantyhose, which was at the time very new.

It's this unspoken attention to detail that make both shows so deliciously rich to me. Even though the second half of the third season of Mad Men is unspeakably boring, and baggers and indeed say I'm not allowed to skip ahead to the last two. THEY ARE SO MEAN, GUYS.

And Avatar has committed the unspeakable rudeness of being only three seasons, and, as with Babylon 5, rewatching has failed to magically produce more. It's getting to the point where I might actually watch the movie, if only for the bits with Dev Patel. Because he's amazing, and should play the Fourteenth Doctor. Which, if Airbender represents the calibre of scripts he's getting, he might actually do.

I know the whitewashing of the characters is well and truly old meme, but here's something I only realised today: so whitewashed is the cast that Gran-Gran is played by Katharine Hepburn's niece.

I've watched The Sarah Jane Adventures the last couple of weeks, and enjoyed it just fine, but I feel like Avatar has really spoiled me for quality early-teen TV. Compared with Avatar, or even season 5 of the mothershow, SJA just seems very small and confined. Stories set in 21st century London? How quaint! I didn't hate the first couple of stories, they just didn't touch me at all. And Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra get better every week, which is lovely to watch (and they're my main reason for still carrying on with the show), but it does rather highlight Elisabeth Sladen's inadequacies.

STUFF I HAVE READ:

Two of Sarah Caudwell's Hilary Tamar novels, in which a legal historian and a troupe of barristers solve mysteries. I love these books, and occasionally wonder if the judicious application of necromancy might bring about more. It's as if Enid Blyton and Jane Austen got together to write legal mysteries, starting out over tea and cakes but then getting into the gin.

Speaking of necromancy, I just this afternoon finished Dust by Joan Frances Turner. Which shall at some point get a proper review, but mostly at this tage, my main reaction is go to O_O and !!!! and -_- a whole lot. I don't read horror much, so there were whole sections where I was effectively hiding behind the sofa. Which, may I add, is TOTALLY USELESS when you're reading a book. But it was amazing, and I'll get around to recommending it properly as soon as I achieve coherence again.

Now I'm halfway through The Art of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is very informative and interesting, but there's also a lot of stuff about architecture, when what I really want is stuff about characters. Also, it's not really a book you can stick in your handbag and take to work, so I should probably check out my to-read pile. Or piecesofalice's.

Randomness 1: I've been trying to figure this out.  It took me a while to figure out what the author was actually saying (sentence construction: a lost art), and when I did get the gist, I was inclined to call troll.  On the other hand -- actual journalist in actual (well, Murdorch-owned) newspaper.

Randomness 2: Last night I dreamed that Stephanie Meyer wrote a book about a teenage girl who breaks into prison to kill the man who raped her, only instead she falls in love with him.  To prove that he's not the right man for her, he breaks out and murders her father.  When I woke up, I spent a good few minutes wondering if (a) that had been written yet and (b) if my subconscious had come up with the next great teen novel. 

Randomness 3: I tried to read the first Elizabeth George novel, because people kept recommending the Lynley series for Wimsey fans.  For some reason, the comparison led me to think George's books would be good.  I frankly feel a little cheated; I already have one sleuthing aristocrat in my life (*tips hat to Lord Peter*), I don't need two.  In any case, Lynley is a pale copy, and eccentric aristocrats are lovely in the Thirties, slightly embarrassing in the Eighties.  (I kept getting sidetracked wondering how he managed to be so rich, and have a vast estate, what with forty years of death taxes and all.  Lynley probably voted for Thatcher.)  It was a bit like reading about Princess Diana fighting crime, although I'd actually read that, whereas I dropped this one as soon as a better book came along.