Posted on

Aaaand I’m now writing my Psych paper on Buffy. I believe this nicely rounds out my Fandom in Academia series:

Freshman Year:

  • Visual Communications — Lord of the Rings. Comparative visual analysis of equivalent scenes in two film versions of “Return of the King.”
  • Digital Design Foundations — Sandman. Reinterpretation of The Endless in my “Sandman Series.” In this class, I also did designs inspired by Monty Python‘s Ministry of Silly Walks and Ender’s Game.

Sophomore Year:

  • Copyright and Culture — Harry Potter. Discussion of legal implications for different types of fan art (focusing on the Harry Potter fandom)
  • 3D Computer Modeling — The Nightmare Before Christmas and Star Wars. I modeled an environment from TNMBC and an Imperial walker from Star Wars. Also a creature based on the Jabberwock, but I’m not exactly in the Lewis Carroll fandom.
  • Networked Life — Buffy, sort of. We were supposed to create a network of absolutely anything, so created a network of Buffy guest actors, linked based on if they’d appeared in an episode together. I ended up discussing the arc structure of Buffy a bit in my analysis of the shape of the graph, but it wasn’t really about Buffy itself.

Junior Year:

  • Film History — Star Wars. The impact of the original Star Wars trilogy on the special effects industry.
  • Virtual World Design — Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Created a video game set in an environment based on an image from The Wolves in the Walls.

Senior Year:

  • Feminist Fairy Tales — Terry Pratchett. Theories of Revision in Tepper’s Beauty and Pratchett’s Witches Abroad. (We read the book in class, mind you!)
  • Film Analysis and Methods — Firefly/Serenity. Comparison of themes of “otherness” in Serenity and The Searchers
  • Science and Literature — Doctor Who. Senior Year, Empathy with aliens in War of the Worlds, Ender’s Game, and DW 1×06 “Dalek.”
  • And now: Psychology of Judgments and Decisions — Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The indirectness bias in “The Gift” and other episodes.

Why yes, I am awesome. I accept your love and I return it.

Posted on

My Sci-Fi final paper is due in 15 hours, and I just changed my topic. Why do I hate myself?

Though I must say, it’s a lot easier to write when you switch from Out of the Silent Planet, Red Planet, and Ender’s Game to War of the Worlds, Ender’s Game, and an episode of Doctor Who.

It’s my last paper as an undergrad. I’ll write about whatever the heck I feel like for my third source, thank you very much! We just have to pick one book from the first half of the semester, one book from the second half, and the third can be absolutely anything. I’ve heard that other students are writing about Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Doctor Who, and one girl was considering writing about the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so I feel justified. I’ll have to get the full list of non-class material written about in these papers from my TA.

*blasts “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” in the privacy of my headphones*

Edit: Done at 10 AM, with two hours to go! I even got 4 1/2 hours of sleep out of the deal! WIN! God bless the miracle of e-texts, which allow me to find the quotes I need with minimal fuss.

Posted on

*blasts “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” obnoxiously*

Doctor Who is back, and OMG SO MUCH LOVE! Can I marry Ten and have seven thousand of his human/Timelord hybrid babies? Or if not, can I at least marry his hair?

Oh, and:

Dear All Writers Ever,

Adults are 15 compressions to 2 breaths. Children are 5 compressions to 1 breath. If you’re going to write CPR, get it right already! It’s not hard! Has there ever been a TV show to get this right, EVER?

Love,
Priscilla

Posted on

Heroes. “Fantastic,” Doctor Scruffy? Fantastic indeed!

And Studio 60, “special guest Masi Oka” does not mean “Masi Oka is in this episode for three seconds, just repeating the same line.” He’d better be in the second half of the episode, or I will have Words with your promo department. HEY, that wasn’t a perfect analogy to one of the plot threads for last night’s episode, was it? Because then I’d have to laugh, then punch Aaron Sorkin in the face. :D