Alaska, she is cold

[sholio]

50 below zero in Fairbanks this morning, and supposed to stay that way all week. Killer weather. We put a heat lamp in the chickens' coop; we'd had a hundred-watt light bulb in there for extra heat, but it wasn't really enough for this kind of cold. They were getting sluggish and unhappy. Poor tropical jungle fowl.

The ice fog has really socked in, too. ... for those who aren't familiar with it, when it gets this cold, the moisture in the air freezes into a dense fog of ice crystals. It's much worse in town, with all the ambient moisture from cars and houses and so forth, than out in the intensely dry valley where we live, but even we have a smoggy drift of it. In town it's pea-soup-thick, "can't see the taillights in front of you" fog. Going to work on Friday was a miserable experience. Right now I'm only working two days a week, and my university-employed husband is off until the students come back, so neither of us has to be anywhere until Thursday and we don't plan on attempting it. This is "hunker down and stay warm" weather.

I've been thinking about doing a "year in review" fic post, because I'm enjoying going around and reading other people's, but I'm just not really motivated to. I am bitter, bitter towards the show at the moment *g*, and I really don't want to dwell on having lavished love on it last year.

Edit: Massive "Vegas" spoilers in the comments.

Comments

[roga.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, today I didn't even wear a coat! It's cold now, though. Like, around 6-7 degrees celsius, so... 40s in fahrenheit? I'll just shut up now :-)

Ice fog sounds kind of scary, I have to say. Doesn't it, like, puncture your lungs or something? I'm imagining it as thousands of tiny tiny diamonds floating through the air.

And dude, don't let what you feel about the show now ruin your entire experience with it in fandom! SGA fandom has always been far, far superior to the show, IMO, and the fact that the show might suck doesn't mean that the fandom does (and it definitely doesn't mean that your contributions to it, not to mention the relationships you made through it, were a waste).

[sholio]

The ice particles aren't dangerous by themselves; they're very tiny and human body heat melts them instantly. Ice fog is mostly just annoying. You *can* hurt your lungs by breathing too quickly and deeply when the air is this cold and dry, though. I've done that to myself; it's not pleasant.

I guess every part of the world has its dangerous weather, though. The desert is beautiful and I love your pictures of it, but I don't know if I'd want to deal with the hazards of living there! I guess it's just a matter of what you're used to ...

And regarding your last point, I certainly don't want to lose the friendships that I've built up during my time in the fandom, and I suspect that eventually, after the series ends and everything settles down, I'll work past the animosity and sense of betrayal that I'm currently feeling towards the show and its characters. I'm obviously not over the show, because I'm still thinking about it quite a bit .... just in a negative way. I have to keep stopping myself from writing bitter breakup fic for it ... *g*

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Sounds very, very cold! I'm sorry you're still down, I thought you bitterness was at the fandom and not the show. You've been such a big part of the positive side of both. Hopefully you'll feel better after things have settled.

Did you ever watch "Vegas"? Thought it was of the best episodes they ever did. Top five.

Glad you made it home after the crazy adventuress in NY. I never want to g o to the heart of the city..think I'll stay in cold Buffalo :D

[sholio]

Buffalo - that's where you are? I was close to you! Well, by Alaska standards anyway. *g*

No, the bitterness is mostly at the show (and myself), because it's not like the fandom pointed out anything that wasn't true; it's just that I'd been able to ignore it and go on enjoying the show, until it got to the point where so many people were pointing it out that I couldn't ignore it anymore. I just feel kind of ... duped and angry, I guess. I miss the show terribly, but at the same time, I can't figure out what I ever saw in it or why it took me so long to catch a clue about it.

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

i love your pic of joe i haven't seen that one before

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

Dude, I have no idea how you manage in that kind of cold. We regularly get below zero here in the Midwest, but I mostly stay in bed at that point, whenever possible :D Are your heating bills just out of control huge?

[sholio]

The thing about this sort of cold is that you don't really have a choice so you just ... deal with it. The perceptual difference between -50 and 0 is not really as great as most people think (it's nothing like the difference between 0 and 50), but things are just more difficult in a lot of little ways. Stuff breaks easily. You have to really, really bundle up before going anywhere. And yeah, heating bills go through the roof. We heat our house with an outside coal-stoked boiler, and right now it feels like we're just pouring coal through the thing. But the house is comfortably warm.

Which reminds me ... I need to go out and feed the boiler again. :D

[sheron]

Ouch that ice fog sounds brutal.

How many hours of sunlight do you get in Alaska this time of year?

[sholio]

Um ... about four hours, I think, give or take a bit, though at our house we actually get none because there's a hill in the way and the sun, at this time of year, is too low on the horizon to clear the hill. We can see the sunshine on the hills across the valley, though! We'll start getting sun on the house again in February.

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

are you alaska? ... its not that bad here only like -43 or something. I have seen the -50's and its so not fun at all!!

[sholio]

Alaska, yeah. We always used to see a lot of this kind of weather at this time of year when I was in college, but the last few years have been unusually warm and lulled us all into a deceptive sense of security. Back to business as usual, I guess ...

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Wow, that's brutal. Glad you don't have to go anywhere for a few days, but you'll probably get cabin fever before Thursday. Be careful out there!

[sholio]

Well, I'm still walking the dogs, which helps with the cabin fever. The older dog hates the cold and just wants to stay inside, but the young one isn't bothered at all and he pings off the walls if he doesn't get a run or two during the day. (He's a spaniel/retriever mix, so I guess he's bred to swim in icy water; this dry cold doesn't bother him much.)

[leesa_perrie]

My husband wants to know if the Teddy Brown Hotel is still in Fairbanks and does he still drive a caddy?

He owns the album 'Farewell Fairbanks' by Randy Edelman:

'Old Teddy Brown owned a small and run down motel,
he used to be real lucky to get 10 bucks for a room...
now Teddy Brown drives a big new long black caddy,
a sudden indication of the new but gloomy boom..." - Farewell Fairbanks

I deny all knowledge of this question!! *bg*

And ooh, cold and dark and icy!! Suddenly the cold spell we're having in the UK doesn't seem quite so bad!!

[sholio]

Hee! I don't know if there ever was one, but there certainly isn't one now -- at least not that I know about!

[barcardicider.livejournal.com]

Hey there.

First off, -50 good grief, and here I thought -7 was bad LOL.

Secondly, I know you are feeling bitter towards SGA right now, but I would just like to say how much I enjoy your fics. You are an incredible writer, and your characterizations are spot on. I really hope that you will do a 2008 fic roundup - even if it is several months from now.

I will always look out for new stories from you, even if they are in a different fandom, cos you can't beat quality.

Oh dear! Now I sound like some demented stalker! LOL

All the very best, stay warm.

[sholio]

Awww, thank you. :) It *is* appealing to me to do some kind of roundup post this year, because this is the year that I co-wrote a story with naye and it was *such* a neat experience. But I need to muster more enthusiasm first!

[perspi.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP THAT IS COLD. EEEP.

*sends warm fluffies*
*also hot tea*

As for SGA: I am knee-deep in 'researching' my chocolatier!John-'verse (read: I'm eating the spendy chocolate I got for Christmas) and I've been avoiding looking too deeply at the show. I enjoyed "Vegas" a lot the first time through, and I just rewatched it with the Mr., and...it didn't exactly hold up for repeat viewing, for me. I still think there's a lot to love about the show, and ESPECIALLY about the fandom, and I'm pretty accustomed to sort of mentally glossing-over my issues with canon.

I have had to do that with House, too. I wonder if it's something about shows as they get older, as they've been on the air longer, that they lose their freshness and the show itself gets...sloppy. House's first two seasons were GOLDEN, and there are eps in seasons 3 and 4 that I adore, but they tried big arcs and sometimes really missed and they completely futzed the main premise of the show a few times. With SGA, I can see and agree completely with your idea that there was so much potential that they squandered utterly.

In any case. When I get going on the worldbuilding/writing of my Singing!Ronon fic, would you still come read it? :)

[sholio]

That sounds like my kind of research! :D

I do think that shows have a sort of built-in life cycle. There are really only two outcomes for a long-running show, after all -- either they can keep doing the same thing over and over until it gets stale -- most of the formula-type shows, i.e. cop, lawyer, etc, tend to get that way after a couple of seasons -- or they can mix it up, change around the cast, try different things and risk alienating their fan base. With SGA, I get the impression that they tried to mix it up and just didn't have the writing and universe-building skills to pull it off.

Vegas ... I wonder if I ought to do a post on Vegas. I think that I would have really liked the episode if it hadn't been for the ostentatious exclusion of Ronon and Teyla; it's actually a well-constructed episode, as this show goes, and I loved its darkness and moral ambiguity ... but I think the only thing that could have salvaged the episode, and the fandom, for me would be if the fandom had gone nuts with show-hate because of the Teyla-Ronon exclusion, the way that they do when John or Rodney get shafted by an episode. But they didn't, and that's it ... I'm done, I'm washing my hands of this, I don't think I can stay in this fandom and still look myself in the mirror.

Though singing Ronon is tempting; it sounds rather awesome. :D

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Yuck, I just converted -50 degrees to celcius and I'm only coming to visit you in the summer :D Melbourne weather (http://www.melbourneaustralia.org/climate.html) is pretty tame compared but we do have four seasons in one day. What that means is you dress in a tshirt, wear a heavy coat and carry an umbrella at all times :D

I think you need to step away from SGA for a while. It is causing you pain and I don't like to see that. Since I haven't watched SGA since Brainstorm (Christmas got in the way :D) I have a bit of catching up to do but I already feel slighty distanced to the end. I get more joy out of reading fanfic than watching the real show at the moment.

[sholio]

-50 is about the same in Celcius or Fahrenheit. You *know* you're pretty far down the thermometer when that happens. :D

Like I said in a comment above, I'm totally bipolar on the show right now; I have so much social investment in the fandom that it's very hard to pull out of it, but reading fanfic when I'm not interested in the show or characters doesn't work for me. I just have no idea which way I'm going or where I'll end up when all this is done.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

50 below zero in Fairbanks this morning, and supposed to stay that way all week.

OW.

That's really, really cold. Stay warm!

[sholio]

*wraps self in blanket*

You'd think I'd be used to it by now! The last couple of years have been unusually warm; I'd forgotten how much this kind of weather sucks.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

...I just have to say, much as I want to visit Alaska, you have convinced me that I never ever want to live there. -20 is bad enough, I can't fathom -50! I'm amazed the chickens can manage it even with heating bulbs...

[sholio]

I do think Alaska is better experienced in the summer. XD

[amalthia]

The one thing I hadn't considered when moving to Alaska is how much more work it is to get to work in the morning. And it's really not easy to scrap ice off car windows wearing thick winter gloves. It's getting into the -20's here in Anchorage.

And to think I thought it was really cold at 30 F. At least then I could go outside without feeling my nose hairs freeze!

As for Vegas and the last episode. I was not impressed at all. I know some people said it would not make logical sense for Teyla or Ronon to be in the episode but I don't really care about logic (though I can already come up with a lot of ways they could have been in the episode). It was the second to last episode of the entire series. They should have been there. They could have tossed that episode aside and made something else that would include the entire team.

I've pretty much stopped writing about SGA. I'm sticking around for my favorite authors but really it's hard to love a show when you actually see another show that is just better. For me it was Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica that kind of made me sit up and take notice that SGA just wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. But really what kept me here for so long was A) the hope it would improve and B) the wonderful stories people were writing. the fan fiction added so much more depth to this universe.

[sholio]

Yeah, it's just more *effort*. Everything takes longer. You have to allow extra time on both ends of your commute, and anything that needs to be done outside is a hassle.

Of course, you *would* move up here during one of the colder winters we've had in the last few years, too. XD

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Freezing fog?!! I'm glad I'm in CA! Keep warm !

[sholio]

Generally speaking, I'd rather deal with cold than heat, but this kind of cold does test my resolve a bit ...

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

SGA pretty much will always be just a void of disappointment to me; fabulous cast, fabulous special effects and stage fight direction, and a writing and production team that fell far short.

[sholio]

Yeah, I think I just hit the point where the disappointment overwhelmed me, because it had all the ingredients to be really really good, or at the very least to hit brilliance occasionally, and ended up a giant pit of suck instead. I mean, you almost have to *work* to do nothing interesting with that much raw material.