Post-Serenity afterglow, take two!

[annathepiper]

First up, let me send out a HIYA! to tigrelisfleur, who joins my Friends list out of Great Big Sea fandom (and specifically off of greatbigsea), and who also shares my affection for Battlestar Galactica and Russell Crowe. arthur_denger is an old, old friend of both mine and solarbird's, out of the original Kentucky crowd that got me into SF/F fandom in the first place.

And, Tuesday. This morning I actually have work to do, which is a bit of a shocker, given how many days lately we haven't had testable builds. We'll see if this keeps up through the week. It'd be nice to have another full paycheck again. Especially since as of today, I have two weeks left on this contract.

Last night Dara and I went to see the local Serenity preview at the Oak Tree Cinemas, where we met up with mamishka and aerialscribe. It wasn't actually a planned group effort, since Dara and I expected not to get in due to the event being overbooked--but happily, once we got there, we discovered that they'd changed which screen they were using to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowd. And, Meems and Jeff got there early enough that they actually got in before the line officially formed--so they saved us good seats. Also, Meems won a prize for successfully answering one of the trivia questions asked before the film, though we don't know what she got yet since she has to go by the SF museum (I believe, since they were one of the sponsors) and pick up the item in question.

The film itself held up quite splendidly for me a second time around. I didn't notice too much different, except that this time there were actual credits and more music. It was definitely cool to see it with a big crowd, many of whom were established fans, but some of whom weren't--and as Meems has posted over on her journal, after the movie was over she chatted with this one guy who hadn't seen any of the show at all and yet found the movie perfectly easy to follow. So that bodes well for people who haven't seen the show yet to be able to enjoy the movie!

In other news, as per the recommendation of the vet, I've had to double the daily thyroid meds for my cat. And as per Meems' clever recommendation, I've started giving Polly her meds mixed in with a spoonful of wet cat food. This has gone over well with the cat. EXTREMELY well. In fact, she's started hanging out in her "treat spot" in the kitchen, around the times I give her her meds, demanding her new treat with even more vigor than she has historically demanded her usual treats. And, if given her usual treats, she does still eat them--but hangs around asking for the wet cat food too. ;)

Tonight: more writing, and fish dinner with spazzkat!

Monday miles: 0.05 (token)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 349.3
Miles to Rivendell: 108.7

Comments

[fleurdelista.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I've been telling friends who haven't seen the show to see the movie, and I was worried about the easy to follow-ness of it. Ahh, only a few days left til it opens for real! Yay!

And thank you for the warm welcome!

[annathepiper]

You're very welcome! :)

And yeah, it'll be fun to see the commentary coming over LJ on Friday and later from those who haven't actually seen the series yet--hope it does play well for 'em all!

[fleurdelista.livejournal.com]

I hope so too! And I hope the movie does well so we can have more Big Damn Movies!

[annathepiper]

I hear tell of two more to come! And I'm going to look forward to seeing it a couple more times, so's to make sure we get those next two films!

[fleurdelista.livejournal.com]

Two more? EEE yay! I planned on seeing a few times myself.

[flashfire.livejournal.com]

Fancy seeing you here. ;-)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh! You have created a monster! She is no longer Polly, but a wet-catfood craving banshee, who will whine and yowl at all times of snackage for the sweet, savory, cat-food mixed meds!

All cats agree - wet food beats treats paws down. ;-)

[annathepiper]

I am indeed in for it now! Mmmmmmmmm, snackage!

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

I wish my cat would eat wet food! It would make it a lot easier to give her steroid pills. :(

[annathepiper]

Now that's wacky... I think this is the first time I've ever heard of a cat who doesn't like wet food in general. Does she turn down all wet food unilaterally?

I've had Polly dislike certain brands and flavors (there were certain wet food samples that the vet gave me that Polly didn't like), but so far she's been slurping the Friskies wet food right up.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

All wet food I've tried, and all treats. And all people food that my other cats love (cheerios, for instance). She won't eat /any/thing but dry cat food. And the steroids are for a mouth inflammation, so I can't shove pills down her throat unless she were under anesthetic- she goes totally ballistic if you touch her mouth.

[annathepiper]

Bizarre. Does she have to take the med in pill form? Pilling Polly in the past has been a huge pain, which is why I wound up asking for her thyroid med to be suspended in tuna juice so that I could squirt it over her dry food. That worked pretty well until I realized recently that Polly's erratic eating habits mean that she doesn't necessarily always get the dosage, hence, using the wet food trick.

Alternately, have you tried crushing up the pill and sprinkling it over her food?

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

We were told we could dissolve it in whatever we wanted to pretty easily, but Willow eats pretty erratically, and has this habit of using her paw to pull individual pieces out of her dish onto the floor before eating them, so sprinkling over or squirting over- we weren't sure it would work at all. :P The only solution we've found that has worked at all is to use a dab of honey to glue the pill to a piece of dry food, lock her away by herself with the doctored piece of food and a half-dozen others or so (she won't touch a piece of food in a dish if it's by itself, for some reason), and leave her there until she eats it.

We had some trouble with this method over the summer because the heat made her lose most of her appetite, so she was only gettting her medicine maybe every 4 or 5 days, rather than every other. We would try and try, but she would just nibble at her food, and somehow usually avoid the medicined piece. It's working better now, though. (phew)

[annathepiper]

Goodness, and I thought medicating MY cat was a pain in the ass.

Let us not even discuss the idea of actually grabbing the cat and shoving the pill down her throat, which is why we had to go through all the convoluted alternatives to how to medicate Polly in the first place!

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

I remind myself... it could be worse! Like trying to do it /every/ day. :)

[annathepiper]

That would be worse! So how often do you have to pull this honey-glue-the-pill-to-her-food trick, then, if not every day?

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

Every other day... although in practice it ends up being 3 times a week because somehow, every week, there's one dose that she refuses to take until the next day. Arg. When she first started on the steroids, we had to do twice a day for a few days, then once a day for awhile, and then go to every other day... basically seeing how low we could get for maintenance dose. The twice a day? Um, yeah. Like that happened. :P

We're going to have to get all her teeth pulled- I suspected it would come to that, but I was hoping there would be some miraculous vet med breakthrough while we were steroiding her, and we wouldn't have to resort to it. But life-long steroid therapy is not the answer, it'll just lead to diabetes or worse in the long run.

[annathepiper]

Oof. It sounds very stressful in general... but hey. Beloved kitty. So I'm down with you on that!

Sorry to hear about the thing with the teeth, though!

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

EmmaCat can't stand wet food either. Or at least she couldn't the last time i tried any - which was several years ago.

[annathepiper]

Huh! Weird. Guess cats are just as varied in their tastes sometimes as people. :)

Serenity

[arthur-denger.livejournal.com]

How would you say the motion picture stacks up to the series? Would the movie version compare to, say, the first Star Trek movie, or BattleStar Galactica?

Re: Serenity

[annathepiper]

For me, the movie goes very well with the series. It expanded upon the world we were given and upped the overall stakes of what's going on to a level that'll be well suited to the big screen. There is one continuity glitch that sharp-eyed fans will probably notice between the series and the movie, but for me at least it wasn't a big enough glitch to ruin my enjoyment of what was going on.

I was never a big fan of the first Trek flick, and it's also been ages since I've seen it, but I have lingering memories of it being kind of slow and plodding in some ways, and just not "feeling" enough like Star Trek. Serenity, on the other hand, "feels" like Firefly and it's also definitely fast-paced and moves right along.

If you're talking about the "movie cut" of the first three original BSG episodes, Serenity beats that hands down. That BSG "movie cut" is not really a true "movie"; it's an incoherently edited mishmash of the first three episodes. I have a MUCH clearer memory of that, since solarbird and I actually have it on DVD and I watched it not too terribly long ago. Serenity is its own story and is not just a rehash of stuff you see in the series.

Re: Serenity

[arthur-denger.livejournal.com]

Cool beans. I never saw the BSG movie, but what I liked about Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the fact that it WAS so different from the original series (which I had never cared that much for). The Motion Picture seemed heavier on hard science and lighter on the space opera (NOT that there's anything wrong with space opera, mind you!). It's good to hear that Serenity has some meat on its bones, too.

Re: Serenity

[annathepiper]

Okay cool, I can respect appreciating that "more hard science, less space opera" thing. And I don't dislike Star Trek: The Motion Picture, so.

Serenity, I think, definitely leans more towards space opera. But it's good space opera, so I hope you'll enjoy it when you get your chance to see it. :)

Re: Serenity

[arthur-denger.livejournal.com]

I guess I had less problem with Serenity (the TV show) as a space opera than as "Bonanza In Space". The Western theme in the television version seemed overdone. There are already far too many 'shoot-'em-up in space' movies. It would be great to have a movie which could include some original sf concepts and still contain enough action to keep the audience interested. I think probably Alien came close, though none of its sequels ever did.

[shaylith.livejournal.com]

YAY FIREFLY! ;)

[annathepiper]

YAY!