Sunday, June 7, 2009

Ramble Baubles

I feel like rambling today, so I will. Every post doesn't need to have something of value. Right? I feel like announcing upcoming features though, so maybe I see this blog as some kind of news channel for James fans lately. There has been a flurry of new James stuff, so there's a lot I haven't posted.

Things I'm planning to post in the near future:
-James Callis/Mark Sheppard part 2 from Starfury - seriously, I will get to this one day.
-James quotes from the Jules Verne press conference and a more coherent quote/added commentary on the actual event ones.
-MegaCon panel James bits transcript.
-Other interview transcripts.
-Sex, Chips & Rock'n'Roll, Going Wrong, Heat of the Sun, As If, Soldier, Soldier etc. - some sort of reviews or discussions since I have seen all of these and have some things to say. (But since they're all so old, I'm thinking they can wait until I feel like it, whenever that may be...)

Oh, and watch this interview. It's so funny. "He's trying to save his own ass" - touches his bum* - "had to touch it to check it's still there!" Heee :D I don't know if it's that
a) he touches his bum,
b) he says that,
or
c) the underlying idea of his bum makes me horny,
but I have been just rewatching that bit over and over. And it's just generally a good interview. Done in France during Jules Verne, James is very cute, and is NOT dubbed over, thank Dieu.

* = James points AND giggles for using "bum". Heh heh, "bum"!

OK, on to rambling. These are some random baubles from my brain today.

I'm pretty excited about the baby. I was having a bad week, but I've been walking on clouds since that post by James. My girlfriend asked me yesterday, all concerned: "You haven't changed your mind about not having children, right?" She claimed it wasn't because of James' baby, but I don't know. I'm not having any children with her, that's for sure - you should see the way she tortures her Sims families.

About the name:
I was initially surprised, because to me, Annika is a very Scandinavian name. It's quite common around here, as well. I thought they'd pick something either Jewish or Indian, so it struck me as off character. That's not to say that they're restricted to the Jewish/Indian tradition only - if they wanted to call her Astrid Åsa Gunhild, more power to them. But people generally have a specific naming style, and I thought I had them pegged.

Then I found out that Anika with one N can also be a Hindi name - it's another name for the goddess Durga, who's a pretty fierce character, at least based on the Wikipedia article. (I must confess to my utter ignorance of Hindu culture. I didn't really understand any of it.) It could also be a form of the Jewish-origin Anna, but since they have used the one N form, I'm guessing the Hindi connotation is more important. I'm not sure how they're pronouncing it, though. Maybe a longer ee sound?

Some more name ponders for those who care:
-All of James' children have names ending in -a (Joshua, Sacha, Anika). In fact, James is the only one in the family whose name doesn't end in -a.
-Joshua's middle name is Amaan, which means he has altogether six A's in his name. All of the names are pretty A heavy, so we can conclude James and Neha like the letter A.
-James and Joshua both have the initials JC.
-What's James' middle name? Does he have one? I've never seen it listed anywhere. Is he Just James? Maybe it's something really embarrassing, so he doesn't want it to be known. I remember one of P.G. Wodehouse's stories had a man named Lemuel Gengulphus. He went by his last name only. You never know.

Anika is about one month old now. (L)!

Today marks two months of donuts, although I must admit I'm not quite as obsessed with it anymore (especially in light of the baby news). Just let me know if there are any aspects of James' five-year-old weight gain story I haven't addressed yet. I would happily go deeper into it. Anyone? Hello? Well, I guess I'll... shut up then... (sigh... Not even a direct quote from James anywhere!)

Someone posted a bunch of Starfury photos on flickr, now that I'm no longer updating the Starfury post. Well, here they are in the search - pretty awesome shots. (Hmm, he looked ever so slightly chubbier in Starfury, didn't he? *drool*)

"Click on profile for a picture of a short, drunk, painfully British man." Short and drunk, OK, but what's so painful about being British?

...Apparently this:

It was an attitude slight on him alone. The poor guy was so uptight no matter how many Guinesses we gave him. I have nothing at all against the British, but he acted the stereotypical part the entire night. Nice enough guy, but really needs to loosen up.


Okay. So he was - what? Polite? Not dancing naked on the tables? Not doing whatever you consider cool? Whatever. I'd be concerned if people went around saying he goes really CRAZY at cons after drinking so much.

Flight of the Falcon audio book: Finished it. I thought it was really captivating at first, maybe because of the voices and accents James got to do. I liked the first two discs as well as the last two, but in between, the story kind of dwinled to nothing as tons of Italian person and street names were listed. Disappointing. It was still lovely to hear James' voice though, and he really lived in the story right til the end. I did enjoy some aspects of the story. I hope I'll get to hear his children's book readings some day too.

Had a dream about James. Subconscious mind, I am very disappointed in you today. You call that a fan dream? You could have given me a surprise meeting with hugs and kisses, or wild sexual practices I dare not dream of while awake. What did you give me? Me sitting on the other side of the room, shyly staring at James as he talks to other fans. And not daring to go to him. That was a weak show.

Maybe my mind is trying to tell me something about going to Starfury in November. Long story short: some people are tentatively going, and James will be there. It'd be a great chance to meet him and some fans, and to see London again. But but.

I've thought about this a lot. While I'd love personal contact with James, con meetings are so... impersonal. From what I've heard, you stand in line up to an hour and a half, then pay to get an autograph and/or picture, get a brief chat, and then it's time for the next person to meet him. There are hundreds of people, it's like a conveyor belt. James is great at these meetings, because he's great at meeting new people and making them feel welcome. So I'm not exactly nervous about him being rude or arrogant or dissing me or something.

However, I'm not sure what to expect. What's my role as one of the James Callis bloggers? Am I just another fan in line to meet him, or should I expect something more out of it? Does he read my blog, and will it be awkward if he doesn't? Will it be awkward if he does? Will I be able to stop myself from ruffling his chest hair and patting his tummy (or lack thereof) and telling him to eat more donuts or something? (And if I did those things, would he like it?)

Furthermore, I can be very shy at first meetings. I worry I'd dissolve into a puddle of fangirl goo and not be able to utter one sensible word - and then it'd be time for the next person to talk to him and my possibly only chance of talking to James would be lost.

I'm really not sure what to do. The risk of disappointment is high, but it could also be really awesome. I could observe with my own eyes what he has on his table, and report any possible Coke-drinking or other fetish items. I could bring him something. I could get a photo with him. .. I don't know. I'm very yes-no yes-no right now. But with almost six months to go, I'm sure I'll make up my mind by then. We'll see.

I think I've rambled enough for tonight and it's time for bed. James on you all!

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