holdouttrout (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holdouttrout) wrote2013-08-20 05:38 pm
holdouttrout) wrote2013-08-20 05:38 pm
Alternate Universe Versions of Myself
Yesterday I was convinced I should have studied computer science and today I think I should be a professor of fandom.
My workplace recently had to replace many of our computers, and since we have proprietary software, we needed to re-format the hard drives and re-install Windows on them before sending them to lovely new homes. This task fell to me, as the resident computer guru. I actually really love doing this kind of thing, especially since I *thought* it would be a pretty easy task. Well, to be fair, it WAS easy to reformat and then re-install Windows. I just hadn't realized that each computer would need me to babysit and install a ton of drivers, too. My experience in that regard has been fairly limited. Anyway, I figured that out on Friday, and managed to bumble my way through online documentation, forums, and driver discs to end up with machines that connect to the internet, install updates, and even make noise!
As I was finishing up one of said machines, I thought that I really should have been a CS major, because I love the feeling of fighting my way through ignorance and making a computer work. I actually had a moment when I thought that I probably sold myself short when I was in college--I kept thinking I should take a CS class and never did.
Le sigh.
Anyway, today I was thinking about Sam and Jack and Laira, as one does (if one reads thoughts by Sharon on 100 Days). She made the astute observation that if Jack showed up on *her* planet, she'd totally try to sleep with him, so she really couldn't be mad at Laira. That led me to laugh and then think that she was totally right, and at least one big reason that some of us Sam/Jack diehards don't like Laira is because we have already identified Sam as our proxy*. And then I thought that it would be totally cool to study how the audience identifies with characters based on the longevity of their roles on a show. (My hypothesis is that the longer a character is on a show, the more the audience identifies with them, and that the audience rarely even sympathizes with a guest star.)
That whole train of thought made me think I really should have gone for Fandom Studies. :-)
*I'm not saying we (read: I) don't like Sam in her own right, btw. Or that I don't like Laira, because I think she's actually a pretty good character and it's totally understandable that Jack likes her... but I also kinda hate that she exists.**
**I don't feel at all the same way about Pete. I quite like him. Huh. What in the world does this say about me?***
***Probably that I belong in the Sam/Jack rabid shipper camp after all. Even if I do know where the sekret OT3 passage is.
My workplace recently had to replace many of our computers, and since we have proprietary software, we needed to re-format the hard drives and re-install Windows on them before sending them to lovely new homes. This task fell to me, as the resident computer guru. I actually really love doing this kind of thing, especially since I *thought* it would be a pretty easy task. Well, to be fair, it WAS easy to reformat and then re-install Windows. I just hadn't realized that each computer would need me to babysit and install a ton of drivers, too. My experience in that regard has been fairly limited. Anyway, I figured that out on Friday, and managed to bumble my way through online documentation, forums, and driver discs to end up with machines that connect to the internet, install updates, and even make noise!
As I was finishing up one of said machines, I thought that I really should have been a CS major, because I love the feeling of fighting my way through ignorance and making a computer work. I actually had a moment when I thought that I probably sold myself short when I was in college--I kept thinking I should take a CS class and never did.
Le sigh.
Anyway, today I was thinking about Sam and Jack and Laira, as one does (if one reads thoughts by Sharon on 100 Days). She made the astute observation that if Jack showed up on *her* planet, she'd totally try to sleep with him, so she really couldn't be mad at Laira. That led me to laugh and then think that she was totally right, and at least one big reason that some of us Sam/Jack diehards don't like Laira is because we have already identified Sam as our proxy*. And then I thought that it would be totally cool to study how the audience identifies with characters based on the longevity of their roles on a show. (My hypothesis is that the longer a character is on a show, the more the audience identifies with them, and that the audience rarely even sympathizes with a guest star.)
That whole train of thought made me think I really should have gone for Fandom Studies. :-)
*I'm not saying we (read: I) don't like Sam in her own right, btw. Or that I don't like Laira, because I think she's actually a pretty good character and it's totally understandable that Jack likes her... but I also kinda hate that she exists.**
**I don't feel at all the same way about Pete. I quite like him. Huh. What in the world does this say about me?***
***Probably that I belong in the Sam/Jack rabid shipper camp after all. Even if I do know where the sekret OT3 passage is.
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