A Series of Miscellaneous Meanderings

Misfits finale!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:22:38 GMT

A few of my thoughts on the season finale of Misfits:

Was anyone else strangely let down by this episode? I don't know, I just felt that with all the stuff that had been building for the whole season, this episode pretty much ignored everything that had come before (plot-wise, not in relation to the characters and their relationships and development and stuff). We got NOTHING about Simon killing Sally, other than he's keeping her in the freezer like some icky sort of trophy and that people don't really care that she's gone; and I didn't really like the whole thing about the girl having the power to make juvenile delinquents less delinquent. Other than Nathan's inspiring speech on the roof and that part where Nathan tells Kelly that he likes her bad attitude, there weren't a whole lot of great or interesting moments in this for me. What I think really made the episode were the character moments like Simon giving Kelly the video of Nathan, and Curtis and Alisha holding hands through the glass table, and Nathan running around being himself. Oh, and who WAS that masked biker? Future!Nathan? I needed that question answered, Misfits!!

One bonus was that we got to FINALLY know what Nathan's power was!! But why on earth did it take so long to manifest itself? I was fully expecting him to wake up in that scene with Kelly putting the iPod in his coffin (and no, I never believed they were actually going to kill off Nathan, so I pretty much called the invulnerability thing as soon as he fell). Also, it's a damn good thing E4 just approved the second season, because that last shot is the WORST possible way you can end a series. Honestly! (Though it did put me in mind of Shot Through the Heart, like, a lot. So I appreciated that, because I'm vain. Hehehe.)

Anyway, pretty mixed feelings, though mainly ones of annoyance. Maybe I'll like it better now that I can see the whole series in one go. And when I've had more than two hours of sleep.

Finals are DONEEEEEE, and I got back home to my family late this evening. Yaaaaaay!!! Grades from this semester were surprisingly good:

A- in modernism (SCOREEEEE, considering all I did was BS for that class)
B+ in film production (again, SCOREEEEEEEE)
B- in poetry (whatever)
C in media law (ordinarily this would make me want to kill myself, but because it was freaking media law, instead I say SCOREEEEEEEEEE.)

Hey, I call this semester a win, rather than the epic fail I was convinced it was for the majority of the time.

Oh, and I've been bingeing on Supernatural over the past couple of days, big-time. I started watching the series a week ago and I'm already more than halfway through season 2 (episode 15, for those of you keeping score at home). I'm doing my best to keep from turning into one of those rabid SPN fangirls, I really am. And I know I do watch this show for more than the man-candy and occasional flashes of Wincest (the one I just finished watching had an opening shot that panned through one of their motel rooms, and you could hear Dean smacking his lips while Sam sighed, like you were supposed to think they were making out; but really Sam was just being emo and Dean was eating ribs or chili fries or something. But SERIOUSLY).

At any rate, I've decided I love this show in all its gory ridiculousness, even though I'm kind of afraid that this season 2 finale will make me cry my eyes out. (If you spoil me at all for that, by the way, I may be forced to kill you.) I already have nearly all the episodes stored on my computer to watch later, even though I haven't even watched half the series.

Also, by this point, Dean has grown on me a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I have a soft spot for tormented guys, what can I say? Though I still call Sam. Okay, I'm done. For now. =P

After 2 hours of sleep and an 8-hour train ride, I'm too tired to go on. Sleep now.

Oh, wait. Amusing family anecdote time.

Emily: Jane only has one kid because she said she got everything perfect the first time. So what's up with you having FIVE kids?
Dad: Well, you first four were practice. /Will/ is perfect.
Will: *is running around the living room* I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, RIBSSS!

Ohhh, Phoenix Phamily. *&hearts them*

NOW sleep.

Look! Phoenix made movies!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:45:11 GMT

One more day. Just one more. That's all I have to get through, and then this nightmare of a semester will be over.

I'm not here to bitch about my life. Even though I've had a really, really horrible day today, I just don't want to talk about it anymore. Instead, I come bearing gifts for you all.

I've been in a film production class this semester, and since you all have been subjected to my terrible poetry this semester, I thought I would do the same for my videos, since I probably put ten times the number of hours into these videos that I did into the poems. (For instance, I could write a poem in 20 minutes, but it would take me at least five hours to make a video. No lies. Some of them took me eight or more.) I ended up making six videos this semester, but one of them isn't on Youtube thanks to copyright issues (we had to recreate the sound effects from a scene in a movie -- my partner and I did a fight scene from Push, which was really difficult because it's really hard to recreate the sound of someone getting hit without actually beating the shit out of someone).

Um. Anyway. So here are the five that ARE on Youtube.

First assignment: tell a story using only inanimate objects. This was basically to teach us all how to use a camera. You can judge for yourself if I succeeded at that or not.

Second: redo a scene from an existing movie. We did the scene from Psycho where the detective comes looking for Marion Crane and winds up interrogating Norman Bates. Yes, the detective is a man in the real movie, and the acting is almost laughably terrible. But we were graded on the lighting, so that didn't matter.

Third: a movie trailer. The awesomeness of this clip has little or nothing to do with me. Honestly. We had one guy on our team do practically everything, because it was his vision and script and camerawork and edit. All I got do to was move lights and hold the mic when we were recording. But it looks good, and my name's on it, so.

~*~RUNNING THROUGH THE RAINNNNNNNN~*~

*cough* Ahem.

Fourth: take a bunch of clips from older movies and make a new film. Some kids in my class made these incredible experimental works of art; I made a ridiculous cautionary tale about teen pregnancy. In the 1950s.

And our final. We could have done anything for this: we ended up making this children's movie that's part live-action, part stop-motion. And I got to write the script, which was awesome, even though the writing isn't that riveting at all. (There's like, no dialogue. But I wrote all the action and even did a full on-set rewrite, because sometimes that's how it works in the film biz. You get there and realize half of what you wrote is unshootable with your resources.)

Shortest entry ever

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:21:18 GMT

What is going on with LJ today?! I can't post comments or replies and can barely write entries. Anyone else having this problem? This must be the 80th time I've tried to write this tiny tiny entry.

Been busy studying for my law final all afternoon. Final's tomorrow... eek! But poetry final went well, at least. Yay?

I just want finals to be over.

In other news, my Fox affiliate only showed one episode of Dollhouse tonight, and apparently the second one was way better. I just can't win today, can I?

Glee-dux: Sectionals!

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:41:31 GMT

Ok, truth time. I haven't done a lick of studying today (other than going to my review session for media law, which really did make me feel better), and I really am about to go do some now. But I could NOT go without talking about Glee.

OMG. OMGOMGOMG. THIS EPISODE. WAS. SO. INTENSE.

I won't go into tons of detail because they're all kind of a blur at this point, to be honest, but I was sitting on the EDGE of my seat for a good half of the episode. Finn found out about Quinn/Puck! Ken left Emma! Will left Terri! (and Will/Emma had an inevitable kiss which I was kind of meh on, even though the song in the background was a nice touch) Sue got fired! JACOB BEN-ISRAEL JOINED GLEE CLUB! BRITTANY AND SANTANA ARE LESBIAN LOVERS! AND WILL AND SUE PROBABLY HAD THE CLOSEST THING TO A CANON KISS THAT THEY'RE EVER GOING TO GET SINCE FOX HAS NO BALLS! (Seriously, their faces were SO CLOSE in the hallway, and then she kissed her finger and pressed it to his lips?!?! AAAAAAAH!)

So in short, this is the most appropriate icon that can possibly be used in the context of this episode.

Oh, and Artie ramming his chair into the wall repeatedly after the juvie girls performed "Proud Mary" made me laugh really hard. But I also felt really bad for him, since that was HIS song and they stole it from him. And poor Mercedes! She nailed that Dreamgirls song and then couldn't perform it in public. Though Rachel nailed her song, as per uz. Loved the Stones song, and Vim, now the eternal mystery of whether Finn or Puck was singing has been solved. And for some reason, the show version of "My Life Would Suck Without You" sounded somewhat better than the iTunes version. But not MUCH better. It was still kind of like Kidzbop. But, whatever.

Oh, Glee. My life will suck so HARD without you.

Anyway, back to studying. I've been doing RA things all day long and saying I'll study, even though I haven't been. Oh, and watching Supernatural, since for some reason I finally decided to start watching this show TODAY, when I have FINALS, even though I've had a vendetta against it for four years because of the way the show caused Jared Padalecki to be written out of Gilmore Girls.

Anyway, I've only seen 2 episodes, but it's pretty good so far, though it's very horror movie-ish and that really isn't my favorite genre of film. At all. But the stories are interesting and suspenseful and the pilot was good for a WB show; and I really like the brothers (not only to look at, because they ARE hot, but I also like their characters and how they work together). I do think the fandom is a liiiittle bit... overenthusiastic, but then I look at Jensen Ackles and I'm like "Nah."

Oh, and I have to tell you this hysterical story: So like I said, the fandom goes a little overboard in their love of the main characters, with wars over who's the hotter Winchester brother and all that. So anyway, Jeff, one of my close guy friends, has been into the show for a while and keeps telling me about it even though I hadn't watched a single episode until today. Now, Jeff is straight (though he's often mistaken for being gay since he's a bit effeminate and likes Broadway musicals); but he's had giant mancrushes on both Jared and Jensen for a while. So here's what happened on Facebook when I told him I had started watching Supernatural:

Phoe: So, um, I kind of started watching Supernatural while I was supposed to be studying law. And... I call Sam.
Jeff: SAM IS MINE!!!! I saw him first. On another note, the conversion process has begun.
Phoe: But you're straight!! And you have a girlfriend!!! And... he's MINE! And yes. Yes it has. At the worst possible time. Siiigh.
Jeff: Hey, Casey allows me to have my mancrushes!

We eventually decided to share Sam. Though I may keep Dean on call as my smexxy lover. ;)

Also, Cory Monteith is in the second episode!! He's in like two scenes, has maybe one line, and gets eviscerated by a grizzly-werewolf-cannibal demon. And he wears a fugly do-rag. But still! Cory! &hearts

Time to continue studying ethics now, I guess. I mean, to start.

Las clases ya se han terminados!

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:25:59 GMT

I am FINALLY done with classes for the semester! All I have left now are final exams to get through, only one of which (media law, obvs) I'm really worried about. And, even better, there are lots and lots of things crossed off that massive list I posted a few days ago, which makes me feel better. :D It's just the things that are left that are worrisome, just for the simple fact that they exist, but I'll get through it all. Eventually.

Got sad news in the midst of my mad rush to get my work done this morning: CBS is canceling As The World Turns, my recent soapy obsession. =( Well, Luke and Noah, we'll always have Youtube.

Anyway, happier things! I got a bunch of Christmas icons yesterday, including the one I'm using now, which is my default for the rest of the month. (I actually find it really sad that these icons are the only reminders I have that Christmas is coming up soon. What with school and everything, it's kind of slipped my mind. I've even mostly forgotten that it's December.)

I also wanted to remind you all if you want a holiday card from me, leave me your address here, or otherwise PM it to me. I don't think I'll be able to really get started until finals are done, but I'm making up my list now, anyway! I should get things out starting next week at the earliest.

And here's something I've been meaning to mention for the last little while...

So in my lit class, the last book we've been reading is Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is about this womanizer who inadvertently falls in love with this girl, and how their relationship unfolds in Russian-occupied Czechoslovakia. And there's a subplot with his favorite dirty mistress (who is my favorite character, btw) and lots of philosophical stuff about whether you should let yourself be tied down by love and what's acceptable to sacrifice in order to have love and all this good stuff.

But that's not as important. Point is, Tomas is basically Barney, albeit Czech and not funny and played by an ultra-sleazy Daniel Day-Lewis. (Seriously, look here. And there's one part at the end of the movie where he leers at Tereza for a really, really, really long time, and it's creeptacular.) Sure, just the fact that they're womanizers isn't really enough to say "Heyyy, they're the same person!" But Tomas is always torn between his love for his wife Tereza and his love for banging other chicks, and he eventually gives up the other chicks to live with Tereza (in a police state). Sound familiar? (Other than the police state, that is.)

Other similarities:

- Both became womanizers because they had their hearts broken by another woman (Barney had Shannon, and Tomas had his first wife who he divorced for some reason and then he estranged her and their kid).
- Barney has his iPhone full of booty call numbers. Tomas has a bunch of what he calls "erotic friendships", aka regular booty calls, including his favorite dirty mistress Sabina, who likes to walk around in nothing but her underwear and a bowler hat and probably got it on with Tomas's wife Tereza when he wasn't looking. For serious.
- Bullshit methods of getting laid: Barney has the Playbook, Tomas simply tells random women to take off their clothes. If they do so, he scores!
- This passage: "...He would meet each of his long-term mistresses only at intervals. He considered his method flawless and propagated it amongst his friends: 'The important thing is to abide by the rule of threes. Either you see a woman three times in quick succession and then never again, or you maintain relations over the years but make sure that the rendezvous remain at least three weeks apart.'" Yeah, the author's language is pretentious there (he "propagated it amongst his friends"? Really?), but it's kind of like Biblical Barney!
- The book never mentions how he dresses, but in the movie Tomas is a pretty good dresser. And he is a brain surgeon, so he probably has the money for suits.
- Barney says things like "Legendary!" and "Suit up!" Because Tomas is a literary figure, he doesn't say anything quite so cool, but he is rather fond of saying "Es muss sein" (German for "It must be," because he's a fatalist... it's postmodernism, okay?!) and the ever popular "Take off your clothes."
- Tereza is really nothing at all like Robin, but Sabina totally is: she's afraid of commitment, a free spirit, always running off to different countries like Switzerland and America, and fiercely independent. She and Tomas never have a real relationship because neither of them want one, but it's clear they have a deep connection beyond the fact that they get it on whenever she puts on her bowler hat.
- They both have a hidden vulnerability that no one really gets to see. Barney hardly ever lets his guard down; Tomas does that we can see maybe once, when Tereza leaves him. Only then he hoists back on his awesome and goes back to Czechoslovakia being all "Ok, will you strip now please?" But you know. More pretentiously.
- Tomas says at one point that he's been with 200 women. For real.

And this is also completely random, but Barney would like the movie, because it's full of naked chicks, Sabina is like his wet dream come to life, and one extended scene where Sabina and Tereza take naked pictures of each other, roll around on the floor naked together, and end up kissing good-bye on the lips. I am really not making this up.

I'm about to die of hunger, seeing as about all I've eaten today was half a box of Milanos (which are delicious, but need fooooooood). So I think I'm going to do that now. Peace, y'all!

The to-do list to end all to-do lists...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:37:29 GMT

Next week is finals here, and you know what that means. Another list of all the things that need to be done over the next week and a half. Hooraaaay.

Modernism:
[x] Journal #1 (Eliot - Prufrock)
[x] Journal #2 (Eliot - Waste Land)
[x] Journal #3 (As I Lay Dying 1)
[x] Journal #4 (AILD 2)
[x] Journal #5 (AILD 3)
~~[ ] Journal #6 (Invisible Man 1)~~
[x] Journal #7 (IM 2)
[x] Journal #8 (IM 3)
~~[ ] Journal #9 (IM 4)~~
[x] Journal #10 (Unbearable Lightness of Being 1)
[x] Journal #11 (ULB 2)
[x] Journal #12 (ULB 3)
[x] Journal reflection
*all of the above due 12/8* (EDIT: I didn't finish all the journal entries, but you know what? I'm only human.)
[ ] Final paper (due 12/15 at 1 pm)

Media Law:
[x] Hypothetical due Tuesday 12/8 to DD
[x] No class 12/8 (yay!!)
[x] Review session Wed 12/9 at 4 pm
[x] Study for final like your life depends on it (I am planning to do this for pretty much 2 days straight, if not 3.)
[x] Final, 12/12 at 1 pm

Poetry:
[x] Poem #7, damn it. EDIT: It sucked, but at least I finished. And it totally emulated EB's boring style. =P
[x] Revision #5, damn it.
[x] Revise final poems (how many?)
[x] Prepare Colonnades submissions
[x] Reading, 12/11 at 1 pm

Film Production
[x] Film final project tomorrow, 2:15
[x] Edit rough cut Sunday
[x] Production notebook due Monday
[x] Screen rough cut Monday
[x] Edit final cut
[x] Study for written exam (Sunday 12/13)
[x] Final, 12/14 at 1 pm

Other:
[x] laundry. Preferably soon.
[x] catch up on HIMYM
[x] get balloons for finals program!!!
[ ] intent form, AD eval, peer eval
[x] duty Saturday (aka tomorrow) night
[x] get Biscuitville orders
[x] HIMYM Monday night
[x] duty Tuesday night
[x] pick up Biscuitville Wednesday morning (get someone to drive!)
[x] RA meeting Wednesday
[x] Glee Wednesday night
[x] Misfits Thursday night (if it takes longer than an hour to track down, bypass it.)
[x] duty Friday night
[ ] Duty next Tuesday night
[ ] Stock up on cookie dough, if necessary.
[x] Book train ticket
[ ] Take train home, ~~Wednesday~~ fucking THURSDAY morning!

So, that's depressing. But I've otherwise had a pretty good day today. My little sister got into William and Mary, early decision, so yay for her!! =D And all day I've been rewatching Misfits and getting caught up on The Office, which has actually been pretty good the past few weeks, even though Jim and Pam annoy me now. Ooh, and I stocked up on ice cream and cookies for my upcoming mondo study session, so I'm excited. Mmm. Chocolate.

Oh, also, I saw Dollhouse tonight...

While the show's been pretty inconsistent from the start, the two episodes they showed tonight were pretty decent, with (many) flashes of uber-awesome. Was NOT seeing the Sandy Rivers twist coming, Echo was actually somewhat tolerable, Ballard ACTUALLY disappeared, Summer Glau was there with her AWESOME SELF and her character was like River with less crazy and more psychosis (it made sense in my head, trust me). AND they imprinted Victor as Topher, which is probably my favorite thing ever, and now I'm ridiculously in love with Enver Gjokaj. Like, even more than I was when he was Kiki. Because he makes just as good a Topher as Fran Kranz does, and I love Topher, and oh my GOD the tandem adorkableness was just too much to handle.

Victor: Does [Summer Glau's character] have glasses?
Topher: Glasses on a CHAIN.
Victor: For the winnnnnn!

Best exchange ever. I kid you not. I mean, other than Victor calling Topher "me-man". Oh Topher-imprinted Victor. Oh Enver. How are you both so AWESOME?

And I need a Victor icon. Drat. =(

With that, I guess I'll actually start on this list. Maybe I'll go do laundry. Or start studying law. Making a responsible choice for my future. On a Friday night. Being a director had better be awesooooome.

I don't think you're ready for this telly!

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:53:22 GMT

How long has it been since I really talked about TV in this blog? Well... a while. I know it's been around three weeks since I really talked about Glee specifically. So I decided to do a mega monster redux of that, as well as some good talking about two of my new favorite shows: Misfits and... wait for it... As The World Turns. Yeah.

First things first. And I haven't talked about this show since "Wheels" aired, just because I haven't had time; so I could easily go on for 5000 words if I really wanted to. But I'll keep it brief. Well, brief for me.

Ballads -- This episode was a bit of an oddball because it dealt with some really different dynamics than what we'd seen all season (namely Will/Rachel and Finn/Kurt), but I still really enjoyed it just because Rachel got to act like a goofy fangirl, Will got to actually SING, and I gained an OTP in Finn/Kurt. Yeah. It's totally doomed, almost completely one-sided, and actually more than a little awkward, but I can't help loving it. I'm a sucker for unrequited love storylines, and for Finn, and for Kurt (even though he'll probably have his heart broken). (I also love that the fact that Kurt's in love with Finn, mentioned in episode 3 as a throwaway line, didn't just disappear. Because what with the anvilicious Finn/Rachel shipping going on in this series, I fully expected it to.) Oh, and Mercedes's reaction to Drizzle's paternity? Harsh, but also fair. (And may be the explanation for Puck's behavior in the next episode, come to think of it.) Also, I wanted to hug Quinn. A lot.

Hairography -- This was actually probably one of my least favorite episodes of the season. There were good sight gags with the guys wearing wigs and Rachel's makeovers and the deaf principal and general hairflippiness (*salutes*), but other than that... eh. I wasn't a huge fan of any of the songs (even though "Bootylicious" has been stuck in my head for a solid WEEK because of that damn episode), and I really hated Rachel for how nasty she was to Kurt over the liking-Finn thing. I mean, she was right, but she didn't have to be such a bitch about it. (This isn't the shipper in me talking. I don't think.) Puck also annoyed me toward the end, what with his sexting, but I kind of expected it of him, to be honest. Also, Mercedes pretty much told him he'd be a deadbeat dad, so I guess it became a self-fulfilling prophecy here, or something. The episode was still all right, though; just kind of fillery. And I did like the "Imagine" sequence with the school for the deaf.

Once Upon a Mattress -- Okay. This is the episode that hurt my heart the most, and also that I think I've loved best out of the past three. Lots of typical Glee fun in the first half, particularly with the sequence in the mattress store, plus silliness involving the whole high school yearbook "drama". Seriously, NO ONE in my school ever took yearbook that seriously. EVER. But I guess that doesn't make for as good television.

But the second half of the episode... WHOA NELLY. We'd all been waiting for Will to find out about Terri's not!pregnancy all season, and now the time came, and I should be talking about how this will affect future storylines and the depth of emotion portrayed in that scene (because it was REALLY well-acted, with Will all devastated and Terri just sitting there pathetically), but really, the only thing I could focus on was HOW HOT ANGRY WILL WAS. *ahem* No, but he broke my heart, and I even felt bad for Terri. Just not AS bad.

And while I don't really understand all the drama surrounding the end of the episode re: Glee club (I get the thing about the mattresses, but wasn't Sue letting them off the hook because of Quinn's blackmail? Oh, which was awesome, btw, and now I think I love Quinn), the episode ending was SO SAD because of two things: the use of "Smile," which is a lovely, melancholy song; and the juxtaposition of the song, the smiling Glee photo, Will's sadface watching them fly without him, and the cool kids defacing the smiling photo anyway. GAHH. WHY must this lovely show disappear from my airwaves until APRIL?!?! (I mean, there is a new episode next week, but after that, NADA! What am I going to DO with myself? *cries*)

Songs -- from the past 3 episodes, my faves have been Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," "Don't Stand/Young Girl," "Jump," and... I guess "Endless Love." Oh, and who else has heard their Christmas single, "Last Christmas"?? It's SO good. Also, I downloaded the acappella background music, like "Moonlight Sonata" and "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Soul Bossa Nova" (aka Austin Powers theme), and they make me very happy. :D

Again, haven't talked about this show for 3 weeks. And I don't even have episode titles to go off of, so this'll be fun.

Episode 2 -- Nathan's episode with the old lady sex. Really, with an episode synopsis like that, is there any need to go on? ;) No, I liked this episode, even with all the gratuitous nudity and drug use. (Because he and old-young-lady totally did some kind of drug in that one scene. I just can't recognize illegal narcotics by name yet.) Er, anyway, what I liked about this episode... well, I love Nathan. I do. Even though he's a jackass, he always makes me laugh, and his actor's pretty talented, if that weird Celtic movie I saw with him is any indication. Also, his drama with his mom and the guy who lives with her makes my heart hurt. As of the end of the fourth episode, he STILL has no powers, and I really want him to have one! And since I don't really remember anything else from this episode, I'll leave it there.

Episode 3 -- Alisha's episode. Wasn't really a fan of the A-plot, to be honest, if only because her rape powers are super creepy in SO many ways. I really didn't like how she used her powers against Curtis and Cute Random Community Service Guy, and the way they ended up backfiring on her ended up turning my stomach. I think with her new pervert-Ned-and-Chuck-like relationship she has with Curtis, she might be able to control it a little more, but I think that'll remain to be seen. I also wish I liked Alisha a little more, because while I felt horribly sorry for her towards the end, I don't think I'm a big fan of her as a character. Or the power they gave her, because it makes it seem like a woman's sexuality is beyond her control and almost an invitation to be raped or the only way to wield control over men, but... whatever, writers. =P

What I liked more about this episode was the suspense they built up with the moving of the bodies. I didn't really see the twist of shygirl18 being the new probation officer, but it kind of made sense at the same time. And the part where the bodies were in the boot (you HAVE to call it a boot, it's just cooler that way) had me biting my nails! (Like, way for your powers to work when they're CONVENIENT, Curtis!! Oh, and same for yours, SIMON.) What I also enjoyed was seeing Kelly and Nathan interact, because he really is kind of sweet to her, in his asshole kind of way. If I ship anyone on this show, it would probably be the two of them.

Episode 4 -- Curtis's episode with the Groundhog Day-like time traveling. Now, time travel has had a tendency to make my head explode, but I thought it was really well-done here. I also like that he can make time go forwards, because that's a useful skill to have. But I only wish that any of the characters could CONTROL their powers a little better, because honestly, being able to switch things like time travel and invisibility on and off at will makes the powers so much more useful. (Can't really say anything for Alisha or Kelly, since their powers seem involuntary by design. Because that's not sexist at all, writers. Again, whatever.)

Anyway. *comes off soapbox* So, question. Did that thing with Simon almost raping Kelly... did that also happen in the real reality, or what? Well, even if it didn't, Simon is a creepy creeper, king of creeperdom. I liked seeing more about what got each character arrested and how their stories kind of tied together. And more than finding out that Nathan really was arrested for eating Pick 'n' Mix, I liked finding out what Pick 'n' Mix WAS. Haha. Oh, Britain.

Right, right. Episode. So, I like Curtis, and I like backstory, and even though time travel weirds me out it worked here, so I liked the episode as a whole. AND! I liked that there were CONSEQUENCES to time travel that didn't go away when he set things back to mostly normal. Because now he's a CHEATING BASTARD and ZOMG Curtis is dating both Alisha AND old girlfriend what's-her-face! I don't ship Curtis/Alisha, but I'm still biting my nails over what's going to happen next. Also, Simon, way to bring EVIDENCE of MURDER to your COURT-MANDATED COMMUNITY SERVICE. AUGHHHH.

And then Simon gets his episode next week. I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so scared. (Because that promo was both freaking weird and freaking INTENSE. MY GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW.)

All right. So, As the World Turns is a new obsession of mine, one that I can blame pretty much entirely on secondmezzanine and her showing me pictures and fic of Luke and Noah (pretty much the only reason I watch, or the only reason ANYONE should watch, even if I do like some of the other characters). Yes, it is a soap opera. Yes, many of the storylines are just as ridiculous as you'd expect, and the writing is pretty typical soap (though, not gonna lie, there has been some good stuff hidden in all the cyclical, melodramatic dialogue). Yes, I fully expect you all to judge me for loving this show. No, I don't care.

To be honest, I've really only seen one or two full episodes of this show, mainly because it's on when I have class. I've watched the vast majority on Youtube, which has the Luke and Noah storyline condensed into about 400 clips (it's been going on for about two and a half years, since the summer of 07). I'm not all the way caught up... I'm maybe eight months into it, and then I've watched the past few months or so. (It was actually really hard to get myself to stop watching. Soap operas are notorious for being addictive, and this was no exception.)

But even while I'm missing about a year and a half of their storyline, I've really enjoyed watching it. I've never really seen any show with a realistic gay storyline, and while this is a soap I think it's been pretty well-handled, with the emotions and not delving into stereotypes and all. I loved watching Luke and Noah struggle with their feelings for one another (especially Noah, who is my Gay Angst-Ridden Filmmaker Soap Operatic Husband and was WAY in the closet early in the storyline thanks to his evil homophobic murderous father), and in the early stages of their relationship they are SO CUTE, even if censorship won't give us a whole lot of boykissing. Which is really, really hot, because Noah and Luke are both kind of ridiculously attractive. See adorable icon.

And right now, their storyline is picking up because Noah went blind in a fireworks accident and he's pushing Luke away and they just decided to split up so Noah could go to rehab and AUUUUUUUGH. How it kills. (Oh, and for some reason Luke's parents decided to adopt Noah, but really, I'm much happier if I just ignore the logistics of THAT storyline and how it'll affect Luke and Noah's relationship now that they're BROTHERS.) But at any rate, I can't wait to watch more of the middle of their story, and then to see what happens next. Because Noah can't be blind forever, right? RIGHT, MEZZ?!?!?!!??!

All right. TV talk out of my system for at least another week. I'm sure you're all relieved. *dies* And now, for me to... probably sleep, actually.

Disney redux: It's all so magical...

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:51:38 GMT

"So just sit back, hold on tight, and enjoy your ride through the most magical parking lot on Earth."
- The best tram driver ever

I'm back, everyone!! I just got back today from 4 magical days at Disney (and 6 days without the interwebz, if you count how long it took me to get there and back. Which was sadface, but we can't have it all, right?). And, spoiler alert, I had an awesome time. Even though I think, by my count, this was my sixth trip to Disney World, it's consistently awesome every time you go.

And now I feel like babbling about my vacation. I uploaded this Megara icon special for the occasion, too! This could well be the longest blog entry I ever write, so hold on to your Mickey hats!

Monday
I flew down to join the rest of my fam... they'd driven down 2 days before. And it was my first time flying alone, AND the first time I'd been on a plane since I was 11, so I was kind of nervous. But it all went very smoothly, luckily. I actually had to get a connecting flight from Atlanta, because for some reason planes don't go straight from Raleigh to Orlando. Luckily, that transfer-thingy went smoothly too, and I grabbed a deliiiicious cookie on my way onto plane #2. Both planes were pretty full, but I snagged a window seat both times, so that was all good. And then I got in to Orlando around midnight, dad picked me up, and we both crashed in the awesome albeit internet-less house we rented for the week. (Because when you're a family of 7, it's a lot cheaper to rent a house than to get a hotel. We'd have to get at least 3 rooms just to fit everyone.)

Tuesday
A (mostly) full day at Animal Kingdom, which is probably my least favorite of the four parks, though there are definitely things I like there. We started by seeing the Finding Nemo musical, which was way better than I remembered it being, and actually made me cry because I guess I'd been feeling weirdly emotional that day. (It was the bit where Nemo sings about his dad not being brave enough to save him, I think. That part just killed me, because I was thinking about my dad and how awesome he is and I just... &hearts) Then we went on the Kali River Rapids, this raft ride that tells you that you'll get wet, but neglects to tell you that you'll get DRENCHED. My brother Will and I definitely got the wettest, since we went backwards down the waterfall and got sprayed by this enormous geyser. So then we got to walk around sopping wet all day. Yaaay.

Oh, wait. I have to go off on a bit of a tangent here. So you know how when you're a kid, you'll go on a ride or see a show, and it'll scar you for life, making you swear you'll never try it again; only then you wait a few years, convince yourself (or one of your parents convinces you) that you were a weenie as a kid, try the ride/show again, only to find your child self was completely right and the show is actually mentally scarring? Well... that's how the Bug's Life show was for me. It's this 4-D thing that shows you what it's like to be a bug, only it's completely terrifying in that they make you think you're being sprayed with acid, shot with poison stingers, asphyxiated by stinkbugs, and that's all BEFORE the bad guy shows up and drops the massive black widow spiders on your head and tries to gas you to death IN THE MIDDLE OF A CROWDED THEATER.

So guys. Seriously. If you're ever in Animal Kingdom, do NOT go see the Bug's Life show in the middle of the giant fake tree. You will live to regret it.

Other than that little excursion, we had a good day here. My sister Emily and I took our littlest brother onto this big ride called Dinosaur, where you get sent back in time to the end of the Cretaceous period, only to almost be eaten by Carnotauruses and almost get killed by the meteor shower. (I'm sensing a bit of a trend. This ride, however, did not scar any of us for life.) And we saw the Lion King show, which is totally awesome and not life-scarring in the least bit, unless you have a mortal fear of tumbling monkeys or fire juggling. And we finished off our day by riding Everest, which is this roller coaster they added a few years back where you're on a train ride around Everest and run in to the Yeti, or something. I don't really know. But it's awesome. They send you around giant loop-de-loops and at one point you're going backwards and it's just a great ride.

Wednesday
Epcot day! I've actually liked Epcot for a while, even though it's traditionally been one of the lamer parks. I just like the faux-future feel, not to mention all the really cool country exhibits. And a few years ago they added a bunch of awesome rides like Mission Space, which is this high-speed flight simulator that puts you on a mission to Mars; Test Track, which we didn't go on this year because it was raining all day, but which throws you around this test track like you're a crash test dummy; and Soarin', which is SUPER cool, like an IMAX movie, but your seat moves around like you're actually flying, and you can feel the wind in your hair and smell oranges when you fly over an orange grove, and things like that. But it's always been the little things like the color-changing floor tiles in Future World that I love about Epcot.

So we spent the morning in that part of the park, then raced around the world, kind of literally. We pretty much sprinted through all the country exhibits to get to the US pavilion, where they have this show Voices of Liberty that my family's loved for years, and that we HAVE to see every time we come to Epcot. It's a cappella Americana music, though around this time of year they also do Christmas songs; and they're really good, even if the singers make weird faces while they're performing. And then we raced back around the other side of the pavilions, with a couple quick stops to snap a picture or twelve and another stop outside the giant golf ball thing to ride Spaceship Earth (I texted Mezz while actually on the ride! Hi Mezz!!), then headed to the gigantic Disney Store in Downtown Disney, because we couldn't take being in the park for another single second while it was pouring rain. And I got a really nice bowl and plate (I wanted to get a practical souvenir, okay?) and a birthday present for my favoritest little brother Will (who is turning NINE on Tuesday!! Eeeeeek!).

Yes, it was raining more or less all day. But you know, we managed to make that kind of fun. We each got these ponchos at Target for like a dollar apiece, and since they were in different colors we all broke into teams and had this family competition as to which team could get to a certain place the fastest. I was on the Blue Barracudas (please tell me someone gets that??) with my mom and Will, and we were the slowest just because Will has the shortest legs and we had to couldn't leave a man behind. But you know what? At least I was the only person to get a picture of fake Canada. Or any pavilion besides Italy, Germany, Norway, or the US. So HAH, other teams.

Thursday (Thanksgiving!!)
We've had Thanksgiving at Disney World before... maybe every three years or so since Will was born in 2000? But this was definitely the best, because this time we were actually prepared for everything, even grocery stores, being closed. (Though, for some reason, McDonald's is open. Go figure.)

So we had our meal around midday, which consisted of chicken (not turkey!! But that's ok, because we didn't want leftovers, and none of us like turkey much anyway), real mashed potatoes, salad, frozen rolls, green beans, and pumpkin pie and cheesecake bites. I've always preferred the food we get when we have Thanksgiving at home, since we make these awesome homemade rolls and get leftovers for days and stuff. But compared to our last vacation Thanksgiving, which I think consisted of pizza from Uno's (which is pretty good, but it's THANKSGIVING so it's kind of wrong), I think we made out pretty well this year. And the food, especially the cheesecake bites, was DELISH, so I'm definitely not complaining.

And then, in the afternoon, we went to the MAGIC KINGDOM!! It was completely crowded, which meant the lines were even more ridiculous than usual; and we didn't get to do everything we wanted to. I especially wanted to go on Space Mountain, but I think the lines were long when we got there, and by the time the crowds had thinned out and we made our way to Tomorrowland the ride had closed for some reason. So that was disappointing. Other disappointments: we went to the Hall of Presidents for the first time ever, which was really, really boring and not really worth a repeat visit, in my opinion. Even if they did add Obama. Plus, the Dubya animatron was a lot shorter than the Clinton one, and that sent my mom off on a political rant for the next ten minutes, not to mention every time the topic of the show came up for the remainder of the trip. And Pirates of the Caribbean is also lamer than I remember it being. (Though not as lame as it was before they added Jack Sparrow.)

But there definitely was a lot of good mixed in. We got to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is a superfun ride; and they have this thing in Tomorrowland called Mike's Laugh Floor, which is like a comedy show where the characters on the screen actually interact with the audience members! I have NO idea how they get this to work, but they ask for audience suggestions for jokes, and get people involved and riff off the input they give, and stuff. It's like improv, but they're all animated characters on a screen, so it's SUPER cool. Oh, and since Disney has their new princess movie coming out soon, they had a bunch of promotion for that: you could have met Tiana, their new black princess, and gotten your autograph with her; and they also had this show where a bunch of characters from the movie got on the old riverboat in Liberty Square and sang songs from the movie. Their one song (I think it's the opening song or something, because it sings about going down the bayou) was especially catchy, and we were singing it throughout the entire trip.

And at night we saw the Spectromagic parade, which I tried to get pictures of, but kind of failed miserably because the lights don't shine as brightly in the pictures. But OH, I have a story you HIMYM people will appreciate: they were selling this thing that when you spun it around, it spelled out the word "AWESOME" in lights. And JUST as I was thinking that that would be the kind of thing Barney would like to have, this guy behind me said "You know that show How I Met Your Mother? Barney would totally have something like that." I squeed. =D

And we also saw the fireworks, which were amazing, as they tend to be. Again, I tried to get pictures, and it kind of worked? Here was one of my better ones:

Did I mention the castle?? Well, they shone pretty lights on it that kept changing colors, and in this picture you can kind of see the lights twinkling on it that make it look like it's coated in ice. The whole effect in person is just breathtaking, and the picture only captures a little bit of it.

We even stayed a bit later and tried to ride more stuff. We ended up hopping on the Astro Orbiter, getting even colder (it was something like 40 degrees), and calling it a day. Will was falling asleep on the tram, even though we had an awesome driver who called the parking lot "magical" (that's what the above quote is from) and said she was dopey for forgetting where the Dopey parking lot was. Hehe.

Friday
Don't worry, guys. We're almost at the end. *pants, wipes brow*

Last day, shortest day, even though it's my FAVORITE park: MGM. Or, rather, "Disney's Hollywood Studios," because they changed the name, even though I REFUSE to call it that, because that's LAME.

Probably the reason the day was so short, besides us getting there around 1 in the afternoon, was the fact that we started our day at this new ride, Toy Story Mania, where the wait was literally about two hours long. And the ride ended up being fun (it was like this carnival thing, where you got to shoot pies and darts at things to win points), but really, no ride is worth a 2-hour wait. So we were dead tired after that, stumbling to see the Indiana Jones stunt show (again) and ride Star Tours (again). Both of which are awesome, yes, but going on them is somewhat perfunctory when you're at MGM. Almost boringly so.

But THEN we went to the American Idol show, which is AMAZING. Here, let me tell you all about it!

So earlier in the day, guests can go to audition for a spot in the show. They let 3 people perform, get judges to give commentary, and then the audience gets to vote on who gets a spot in the end-of-day finale show, where they compete for a pass to the front of the line in a REAL American Idol audition in any city in the country. But the coolest part is the little details that make you feel like you're REALLY at the show: they have taped AND live interview segments with the contestants, Coca-Cola logos in the background, they tape audience members cheering for certain contestants, AND they film the performances in EXACTLY the same style as the real show, with the panning and tilting of the camera and EVERYTHING. (If you all have seen American Idol, I hope you know what I'm talking about.) The show is just spectacular, and my sister Emily had auditioned earlier in the week when the fam came to this park without me, only because she went so late in the day she didn't make it. She encouraged me to audition too, but 1) we were already heading to wait in the Toy Story line at this point, and b) no. (I mean, now I wish I had. But no.)

And then Mom and I rode on the Tower of Terror, which really is terrifying and makes me feel like my head is going to fly off, but in a good way. I wanted to ride on the Rock and Roller Coaster, but the line was too long, they were out of Fastpasses, and we were all pretty tired by that point. I was disappointed, though, because that's pretty much my favorite ride in any of the parks. I also wanted to go on the Backlot Tour, but we didn't make it there either. Oh, well.

Saturday
Twelve hours in the car with my parents and four younger siblings. Not a whole lot to report (luckily, for anyone who's still reading). Though apparently my brother Luke has gotten into The Office in a big way, seeing as we watched nearly the entire second season on the way back to Virginny. Or rather, North Carolinny. =P Oh, and my sisters and Will got tangled into a human pretzel in the backseat in an attempt to get "comfortable," and Will took off his shirt and stuff. Yes, my family is insane. You'll know this within 5 seconds of meeting them, or if you ever talk to me and get to know my weirdness.

And now I'm back! I've got LOTS to catch up on, particularly TV shows and RP transcripts. If there's anything in particular you think I should read, post a link to it below, because I am NOT going through my entire flist. I'll just never get anything done.

But I love you all, and it's great to be back! &hearts

I'm... thankful for this fork in my eye.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:34:32 GMT

Ughhhh. Why am I still AWAKE?!

Oh, right. School. And procrastination. FML.

But the good news is I'm DONE with work until I come back from break! All I have left to do now is pack and fold my laundry that's been sitting in the hamper for the past 2 days. And pfft, I have plenty of time for that. After I get some sleep, that is.

Anyway, I was going to do a long post about TV and crap, but now I don't have time. Seeing as I'm about to pass out, and I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow for a week without internet and all that. I guess all that will have to wait for another day. Namely, the day I make my triumphant return to an Internet-ful existence.

Before I go, 2 things. I finally caved and bought 100 icon spaces, yay. I still have about 30 left open, DOUBLE yay. And I get to have lots and lots of pretty icons now, ones I never got to use before! Even when I had the 35 icon spaces. I thought that would be enough, but it totally wasn't. I think 100 is plenty, though. Shocker.

And my second thing is me wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. Because I am so immensely thankful for all of you, that I met you and know you and that you deign to talk to me and be my online BFFLs. Other things I am thankful for: my family, NPH, 100 icon spaces, the ability to stay awake all night without things like caffeine or cheap speed, having all my limbs, good TV shows, and chocolate.

Oh, and happy Slapsgiving as well. But giving slaps isn't as nice as giving thanks.

Peace out, suckers. Here, while I'm gone, watch this Thanksgiving video and think of me.

&hearts

Who loves Phoe the mostest?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:21:14 GMT

Blah blah blah, lemming.

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Writer's Block: Daily Internet routine

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:30:36 GMT

What's your daily internet "routine"?

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Typically, I have several thousand tabs open at a time. Well, more like 10, depending on what I'm working on/using to procrastinate with. As of right now, I have 14 tabs open, although two are the same picture of Noah from As the World Turns, aka My Glorious Gay Angst-Ridden Temporarily (?!?!) Blind Husband. Click for the pretty.

First tab open is always Facebook. I flip back and forth between mine and Ted's several times a day. Next is usually LJ, which I check CONSTANTLY. Then I have my Elon webmail, since that works better than my regular email, usually. Also because it has the emails that are most important. These three tabs are refreshed constantly, and probably constitute the majority of my internet routine. Sometimes I'll have multiple LJ tabs open, as well (such as the flist, the RP comm, and assorted fics). And I wish I could have both Facebook accounts open at once, but sadly, I cannot.

And then there are the random tabs I open all the time with Youtube videos, Wikipedia articles, Google searches, random things people send me, and the like. I also regularly check TWOP, EW, imdb, and homestarrunner.com, though I tend to forget this last one exists. Except for when there are finals, in which case I tend to watch all 500-something web cartoons over again. Oh, and most recently, Twitter stays open in my tabs, since I just got one and keep checking it.

This is fascinating stuff, I know.

I decided a while back that I was going to do more of a real blog, so I'm going to do that now by updating you all on my week. It's been a little rough due to school and stuff. Once again, every class had something due, typically around the same day, and I was killing myself trying to get it all done. Mezz can attest to my insanity/deadness, as I made her privy to it with a series of long rambly emails I sent hourly on Monday night, updating her on how much I'd gotten done since I last emailed her and telling her bits of a plotline of a Flight of the Conchords episode. (She totally asked for it.) Some choice excerpts:

[I have to] Finish the draft of that fricking modernism paper about fricking T.S. Eliot and his fricking Anglican poetry that he wrote later in life. Fascinating stuff, I know. I'm wide awake just thinking abou- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I FOUND A DRINK IN THE VENDING MACHINES THAT TASTES LIKE TANG.

You're asleep right now, aren't you? I totally saw you on Facebook after you SAID you'd sign off, Mezz. And I got an email notification from you on LJ. You can't fool me! HYAH! This not!Tang is doing funny things to my head.

Mezz, if I'm not online tomorrow, it's because some maniac attacked me on my way home from the library and I'm dead in a ditch somewhere. Or maybe I'm sleeping. Or working some more.

The vending machine still will NOT SHUT UP. I don't understand why that is. Not like there's someone over there stocking up on fake Tang every 5 seconds.

I think I hear birds chirping. Though that could be delirium. I wouldn't be surprised.

(in the middle of the FOTC retelling) They have a band meeting, only Jemaine isn't there since he's too busy trying to prostitute himself.

(after announcing the discovery of not!Tang) I CAN TASTE THE SUNNNNNNNNN.

I don't remember writing half this crap. But I think the moral of the story is, never let Phoenix go more than 20 hours without sleep. Or if you do, keep her away from email. You all are lucky I didn't post this crap on my LJ, because I probably would have if Mezz hadn't taken one for the team.

Anyway, I'm DONE with work for at least the next couple days. I mean, other than working on my film project. But I'll take care of that over the weekend. It's about all I have to do anyway, since I'm going to ORLANDO ON MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Other than that... my life's pretty dull, actually. I feel like all week, my life has been revolving around school. Been feeling like that for the past little while, actually. My one non-school thing has been TV, which I'll blog about separately, because I don't want to go on for too long here. Also, because lord knows I talk enough about TV to fill a blog all by itself that would be even longer than this is. And I need to do some Glee talkage and Misfits ramblings and talk about ATWT and other assorted things. Oh, and I also need to catch up on all the shows this week has gotten me behind on.

Oh. Wait. NOW I remember what I really wanted to talk about.

The interview with Carter Bays and his stupid face.

Everyone on barneyrobin and in their personal journals has already said everything I've thought, basically. I think what it all comes down to is, the writers have gotten unbelievably lazy this season, and they think that putting two characters in a relationship, where they are committed and in LOVE, constitutes making them lame. Tempest made a lot of good points about what message this sends about morality, and she was way more eloquent than I'm being right now, so go read her journal entry instead.

But I think what they did to BroTP was also incredibly stupid from a storytelling standpoint. See, at the end of last season, I was really looking forward to BroTP being set up as a counterpoint or foil to LAME: sort of an anti-relationship, where they didn't have cheesy traditions and pet names and could be THEMSELVES while being in love and together. This season, they didn't even try to give us that. They didn't try to give us anything that was faithful to the characters, like this would have been, and what a thousand fanfics gave us over the course of the summer. Instead, Barney and Robin were set up as a carbon copy of Marshall and Lily, which not only makes NO sense, but is also not really that interesting to watch. I was DYING to see what the group dynamic would be like with two counterpoint couples and Ted caught in the middle looking for his wife. It was the major thing I was excited about for season 5. More so than seeing Barney and Robin together, more so than getting closer to the Mother. But they didn't give us anything even remotely resembling that. Instead, we had TWO Marshall-and-Lilys and Ted caught in the middle doing... something.

In short: I feel the show has no direction whatsoever now. We're eight episodes in and it feels like we've been hopelessly meandering. I couldn't tell you what season 5 is supposed to have been about so far, other than the complete desecration of what could have been one of the most incredible, unique sitcom couples. By this point last season, we'd already been through the end of the Stella storyline, Barney had admitted his feelings for Robin to Lily, we'd had the Shelter Island debacle(s), and Marshall and Lily had talked about babies. What have we had so far this year? Fat suits, aforementioned ship destruction, and basically lame gag after lame gag. I don't know what the show needs to do to step up their game, but they need to do SOMETHING. People don't care about the show because they do a series of funny one-offs. They watch it because of the characters, and the storylines, and the relationships, in a MUCH WIDER VARIETY THAN JUST SWEATER VESTS AND B&BS, CARTER. Right now, the show is funny, but I almost don't care if I miss it. It's almost gotten to the point where, if Neil gets nominated for THIS season, I will be very displeased because the writing is such crap. IT'S THAT BAD.

Okay, that wasn't very short. So to be even shorter: Fuck you, Carter Bays. Or shortest: FYCB. (Thanks Otemps!)

Take a deep breath. Moving on. /fandom rage

Oh! Last thing before I go: residents are lame. Like, really lame. Because they never come to your programs -- I had another area-wide one on Thursday that NO ONE came to, so I got to come home with an entire free pizza. Which was awesome, but... I wanted them to come eat it so I wouldn't be stuck with it. And then there are those that have tons and tons of alcohol in their rooms and then cry about how they weren't doing anything wrong when you came to bust them. Residents, you are EIGHTEEN. You're not allowed to have beer in your room, and 30 cans of it is kiiiiind of BAD.

Man, I'm in a ranty mood. I need to do something calming. Like lobotomize myself through more soap drama. Or actually lobotomize myself.

I've sold out.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:40:51 GMT

That's right. Neil finally made me cave and get a Twitter. I'm officially a twit. *hangs head*

Anyway, feel free to add me or follow me or however you call it. I'm da_phoenix13 on there too. And if you have one and would like me to follow you, just leave your username in the comments!

I've been meaning to do another long entry soon, but I don't feel like it. I've still got to finish my lit paper tonight. Six more pages! Though my professor really liked my rough draft, which is encouraging. Monday night working on it SUCKED. I got about one hour of sleep, and had to take a 2-hour nap just so I didn't die, but I got about 7 hours last night, so that was good.

And Glee was REALLY good tonight... yay! I not-so-secretly ship Kurt/Finn. And Mr. Huntzberger FTW! I'll write more about it later.

For now, back to work.

TV talk and listy lists!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:45:09 GMT

What the hell is wrong with this version of the Grease soundtrack I have? Why can't the songs be in movie order? Because "You're The One That I Want" is NOT the fourth song they play in that show.

*notices readership* Oh. Hello. *removes glasses*

So... I've noticed recently that I don't blog nearly as often as I used to. Seems like all I ever talk about recently is in-depth coverage of TV shows. So I'm going to... be better about doing proper blog entries. Yup.

I actually am somewhat incapable of not talking about TV on my blog, but I swear this time I'm going to keep t short. Starting with something I forgot to mention earlier: Dollhouse is officially canceled. I'm somewhat disappointed at this, but not crushed. The show was very inconsistent thanks to the dubious talents of its star, it got terrible ratings so the cancellation news is NOT surprising at all, and I honestly wasn't disappointed if I missed an episode when it aired. I mean, I never outright missed one, but still. I'll greatly miss the minor characters like Victor, Sierra, Whiskey, and Topher. And I hope Enver, Dichen, Amy Acker, and Fran Kranz find work soon. Because they're very talented. I would know. I'm very t- wait. That's not right. Ah, well.

Onto shows from this week, since I missed them earlier:
+ Castle was good, even if I watched the episode so late at night that I can't remember whodunit, or even anything from the second half of the episode.

+ V continues to be pretty interesting, in my opinion. I somehow don't think I'd be quite as interested in it if not for Juliet and Morena Baccarin, though. Sci-fi doesn't tend to be my thing, but somehow I don't mind it here. I'm also really interested in the story of the good guy alien with the human girlfriend.

+ Earlier tonight I checked out the first episode of this British black comedy called Misfits after reading about it in IO's blog and hearing good things from Otemps about it. And it is AMAZING. It's this show about a bunch of juvenile delinquents who get superpowers after being struck by lightning in a freak hailstorm, and in the first episode they all discover their powers and kill their zombiefied parole officer and stuff. It's very intense and funny and actually pretty dirty, which I think I would have minded a lot more a few months ago but don't so much now. Anyway, great show, and I definitely want to see more. The Irish guy with no powers is definitely my favorite, closely followed by the ex-runner who can stop and reverse time. (Give me three weeks and I'll be better with character names. It always takes me a while.)

+ This week's Office was the best the show's been in a while. That's... actually about all I can think to say about it. Oh, wait: Dwight was actually funny instead of annoying for the first time in a WHILE. And I loved Andy's subplot about trying to ask Erin out but failing due to miscommunication.

+ Oh, and I saw 30 Rock which I hardly ever do, and it was really funny. I liked Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan making their little coalition of the Problem Solvers (their shirts were the BEST PART) and Kenneth's storyline with the Canadian actor. Plus, Padma Lakshmi was on, and she was claiming she invented the Glad bag! Heeee.

+ Saw some trés excellent old episodes of Veronica Mars with Mezz the other day. I still adore the episode from season 1 where Veronica uncovers the secret society for two reasons: 1) the scenes with everyone and the guidance counselor (especially Weevil, Logan, and Duncan) and 2) Veronica's "Hi boys! Say 'repressed homosexuality'!" Oh, and of course, "Veronica Mars is... smarter than me."

Onto me, now. My family's feeling better, which is excellent news. =D And today, I slept until about 2:30 in the afternoon, which is the latest I've slept in a LONG time. And though I love sleeping in, I don't like sleeping in quite that late, because it means my entire day is shot. I got literally nothing done today, which means I have to get a lot done tomorrow. Bleargh.

Speaking of which, time for another to-do list. I'm sure you all are sick of these, but they're for my benefit anyway, so I don't care.

[ ] ~~Finish reading Invisible Man by Tuesday~~ (Too late. Oh well.)
[x] Do more research on Four Quartets
[x] Finish outline
[x] Finish draft (by Tuesday)
[x] Revise paper (by Thursday)
[x] Blackboard quiz, Ch. 22-24
[ ] Look up film clips for editing project
[x] Write script for final project
[x] Finish preproduction notebook w/ group members (Wednesday)
[x] Revise 2 poems (by Monday)
[ ] Write poem based on Elizabeth Bishop (Monday)
[x] Hypothetical law paper on tobacco advertisements (Tuesday)
[ ] Read first 2 chapters of ethics book
[x] Hall meeting Sunday
[x] Relationship game program (Thursday)
[x] Group process, Tuesday night!
[x] Fire drill
[x] Watch, if nothing else, HIMYM and Glee.

Lastly, a rant.

Dear Residents,
You are the ones who agreed to live in this learning community. You have known about this program for over a month. This program was your fucking IDEA. So when only three of you actually show up to it, I get pissed off, sweet Residents. (Even if I do get to take home nearly an entire pizza from a delicious local place whose name I can't remember.) Seriously, though. I cannot be a successful RA if I plan things no one comes to. The failure of that program can't be pinned on me, but it probably will be. So hopefully, Residents, we'll meet again, at our next program in a week or so, provided you read your emails.
Until then,
All my love from down the hall,
Phoenix XOXO

Okay. Off to get something done before bed. Or possibly just go bed, so I won't sleep all of tomorrow away as well.

Glee-dux: Preach!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:53:32 GMT

I am SO glad this week is over. You all really have no idea. I think severe, continual lack of sleep coupled with crazy stress levels screws with my head/emotions and makes me go off on crying jags over nothing. Good times.

I've got quite a few things to blog about today. I'll start off by talking about Glee, which was totally awesome and kicked the CRAP out of HIMYM this week, which helped cheer me up immensely. (I'm behind on the rest of my shows... will probably watch Castle and V and everything else later tonight or something.) Though while we're on HIMYM, I caught an extended preview for next week (I know, I know) and I already feel a bit more hopeful for the show as a whole. I think there'll be more fallout than there was this week, which can only be a good thing. Still hate how they handled the breakup (and the relationship) itself, but... you know.

Anyway, Glee!

So because I've become about as obsessive about Glee as I was about HIMYM last year (HALP), I've already watched the episode three and a half times and so can talk about it pretty well, I think. Though I didn't think this was a perfect episode, I still GREATLY enjoyed it. My favorite parts were, obviously, the focus shifting to what I feel are my three favorite characters: Kurt, Artie, and Puck. Oh, and Sue. So my four favorite characters.

I loved, loved, LOVED the storyline with Kurt and his dad. Kurt's dad is amazing: I love how supportive he is of his son even while struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. And KURT. Oh my GOD. He gave up his dream song just so his dad wouldn't have to deal with homophobia directed against him? I'll say it again (in case you haven't already heard): I LOVE KURT. He is fabulous in absolutely every sense of the word. And I'll admit he made me pretty teary in that last scene.

Artie: LOTS of love. Even though "I still have full use of my penis" is pretty much the worst pickup line of all time. But my heart broke for him when he found out Tina didn't really have a stutter. I get why he was upset, because he couldn't understand why someone would fake a disability in order to alienate themselves when all he does is try to fit in and be normal. But UGH. MY HEART. And okay, I do ship them a little bit, thanks to that look of love he gave her during his song, and because of the look on his face after she kissed him. But overall, I really loved them giving Artie a chance to shine for the first time all season. I hope we get to see more of his development as the series goes on, not to mention them showing him as more than that kid in the wheelchair. I get that it's an important part of his identity (as is Kurt's sexual orientation), but I'd like to see different sides of the characters in addition to what we see on the surface. They did a GREAT job this week doing that with Sue, so I do have faith. (Also, we’re on episode 9, so yeah.)

While we're on Sue, the reveal of her sister was really well-done, I thought. I also like seeing that beyond the tracksuits and blatant evilness, she is a real person. And yes, I teared up. Shut up.

Puck: The things he did to help out with the bake sale were sweet in such a Puckish way: making the bake sale successful by putting pot into the cupcakes, then taking the money from Artie to give to Quinn. And the way he talked about them being a family... SIGH. Can we move on from the Will storyline and this damn Finn/Rachel thing and just have all Puck, Kurt, Artie, and Sue all the time? Oh, and Brittany can stay. And Mercedes and Tina. And okay, Will can stay. But I vote we throw Finn and Rachel into a broom cupboard so they can work out their sexual tension and so we don't have to put up with them for an entire episode.

A couple things I had issues with: Quinn being mega bitchy about finances and not trying to get a job herself, instead being a pain to Finn when he's not even the father of her baby. The episode did have a bit of a Very Special Episode vibe because of the emphasis on disabilities, but then, most episodes have had some sort of Special Message attached to it (confidence for episode 3, breaking out of your shell for episode 4, etc.). Plus, I watch Clone High, where that's the main gimmick, so yeah. Oh, and I also didn't much like the fact that the episode was way too overcrowded with so many great storylines. This hardly seems like it would be a complaint ("The episode was TOO awesome! Waaaaah."), but it felt like we were almost moving too fast to do any of these storylines justice. I mean, there were FOUR subplots, three musical numbers, and it all had to take place in 42 minutes. Glee's been notoriously fast-paced, but come on.

But the music all ROCKED. I adore Artie's jazzy/bluesy version of "Dancing With Myself" (and his wheelchair dance was great... I thought they might do a fantasy sequence where he can dance on his own two feet, but this was cool too). And the look on Kurt's face when he's singing "Defying Gravity" and looks so conflicted in the middle and so SAD when he blows the high F!

Time to stop babbling... I say the ep overall gets an A-, if only because of that overcrowdedness thing. But as I said, miles better than HIMYM was this week. So that was a very good thing.

RA stuff is going a little better, I think. Last night I was freaking out to Mezz about how terrible I thought it was going and had a minor emotional breakdown for reasons I couldn't quite pinpoint, but today I feel SO much better. I think it's partly because my 1-on-1 went a lot more smoothly than it has the past couple of weeks, and also that I'm planning a lot of programs for the next month or so, so I feel like I've got plenty of opportunities to connect with residents.

School... meh. Always busy, especially now that break's coming up. You all saw my deadly to-do list for last week... this week should be better, but not by a ton. And it was rainy and cold and nasty all week, which was highly unpleasant. I just wanted to stay curled up in my blankets all day, every day, but I couldn't because I had too much to do. I also feel like I'm getting a little bit sick, or that I have been for a few months, or something. I should probably get more sleep to try and fend that off, but... eh.

Also, my dad called me yesterday and told me that literally half my family -- my mom, two brothers, and one of my sisters -- has the swine flu, or at least flu-like symptoms. So I'm really hoping they all start to feel better and that this doesn't put any dampers on our plans for Thanksgiving... we're supposed to be going to Disney World, which is exciting! But I'm worried about all of them. =/

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Three months to my birthday, and (point of interest) tomorrow will mark the one-year anniversary of when I first posted my HIMYM games theory. It's strange to think about me having been so active on here for almost a year.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:02:33 GMT

Someone, please cauterize the fangirl part of my brain so I can get this goddamn paper done.

Not only am I still irate over last night's ep(ic fail), I now have plot bunnies like WHOA. And I can't write them because I have 15 pages to write in 4 hours, not to mention all the work I have to do tonight.

Someone just... please? Help me.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:10:09 GMT

"I am so genuinely sick right now. If I could have eaten today, I'd be throwing up all over your floor."
- Veronica Mars

Okay, yes. I watched it. I'm a horrible person. Please don't add any more to my guilt.

Here's the thing about this episode. It's not the fact that Barney and Robin broke up that makes it so terrible. In fact, with the way they handled this storyline, it's almost a relief that they did, just so we wouldn't have to sit through any more cliched storylines about new relationships and couples coma or Barney in a goddamn FAT SUIT or whatever. Since the premiere, BroTP has been handled with all the dexterity of a kindergartener just learning how to color inside the lines. The characters have not been themselves, they haven't been interesting, and most importantly, this storyline hasn't been fun to watch. I don't know if this is just from a longtime viewer standpoint or what. But if I'm being honest, I've read a million fics and RP transcripts that deal with Barney and Robin as a couple far, far better than anything I've seen this season has.

And if I'm even more honest, this hasn't just been a symptom of the BroTP storyline. It hasn't been sabotage of the relationship just to preserve Barney's manwhore status. Or at least, not solely that. No, I've been very dissatisfied with nearly everything that's happened this season. You've already read my thoughts on Marshall and Lily and how they've been mostly lame. In my mind, I'm no longer watching a show about people -- fictional people, but people nonetheless. Characters have to be relatable and realistic if they're going to make it, and I no longer feel the HIMYM gang is. Ted was the only one who was even okay this week, and I may have liked him only because I'm severely biased.

I have no idea what's happened to the writers this season, if there are a bunch of newbies on staff or they're just yielding to network demands or whatever. But this HIMYM is not the HIMYM I know and love. It's not the HIMYM from season 1, and it doesn't even measure up to the bipolarity of last season. You all know how much I love conspiracy theories: mine is that the show quality has been sacrificed in order to get ratings.

You know, maybe shows shouldn't last longer than three seasons. In my experience, it's typically around the fourth that it starts to get bad. I still believe The Office should have ended with the 3rd season finale, I'm almost glad that FOTC only got two seasons, I don't own and won't buy Buffy past season 3... Veronica Mars was canceled at the end of its third season, perhaps mercifully. Lost is an exception, as season 4 kicked all kinds of ass, but season 5... meh. I think it starts to be around this point that most shows start to take a nosedive in quality. We all saw it last year with HIMYM, and sad to say that 7 episodes into season 5, there have been maybe one or two episodes I've really liked. I never even got around to blogging about last week's, and that was one I actually enjoyed.

So, HIMYM, an ultimatum. Either step it up in terms of quality of writing and characterization and plot and interesting, in-character things happening, or call it quits at the end of this season. I don't think I'll be able to bear it if you become uninteresting and unfunny to me, because god knows I'll keep watching and almost hate myself for it, only to remember the days when you were actually good.

I don't care if you unsink the ship or not. I just want you to make me care about you again.

ATTENTION LIVEJOURNAL.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:31:01 GMT

To preface, I have read no spoilers for tonight's HIMYM. But based on people's reactions to them, I have decided to forgo HIMYM tonight in favor of homework. Which is like HIMYM in that it starts with an H and has an M in it, but is decidedly less fun.

That's right, suckers. I'm being responsible.

I never thought I'd say this, but TV can wait until after my homework is done. (I KNOW.)

So PLEASE. DO NOT SPOIL ME. It's looking like I won't be able to watch HIMYM (at least with a clear conscience) until Thursday. It'll take me enough willpower to stay off the comms and all y'all's journals. Don't make it worse by asking me my thoughts on the episode, or commanding me to watch it at that very moment. You guys know I have nearly no willpower as it is.

Here's my to-do list for the week. Just so you know my completely valid reasons for not watching a 20-minute TV program.

[x] Film sounds for assignment 4.
[x] Edit assignment 4.
[x] Outline Eliot paper.
[ ] Write first draft of 15-page Eliot paper, due Tuesday.
[x] Revise 2 poems.
[x] Read Elizabeth Bishop poems (5-7? check syllabus)
[x] Write 5-7 page Bishop paper, due Wednesday.
~~[ ] Write poem based on Elizabeth Bishop.~~ PUSHED BACK TO MONDAY, BITCHES!!
[x] Study for law exam.
[x] Take law exam, 8 am Thursday.
[x] Relationships program!
[x] RA meeting Wednesday.
[x] Watch Glee live, if I survive to Wednesday night. (Because I'll have earned it by that point.)
[x] Eventually, watch HIMYM. (*bows head*)
[x] Not watch any more episodes of Veronica Mars until Thursday.

This last one on my list may actually be impossible.

Fic: (t)edification of the obligatory psychotic jackass

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:35:11 GMT

Fandom: HIMYM/Veronica Mars (crossover)
Pairing: mentions of Barney/Robin and Logan/Veronica
Rating: PG-13 for swears and underage drinking (and sexual references, if you count Dick's name)
Spoilers: Season 4 of HIMYM and post-season 3 of VM (mostly mild, or pertaining to the Logan/Veronica relationship)
Word Count: 1495
Summary: Logan and Dick travel to New York and meet Barney Stinson, who gives them advice on women.
Author's Note: This assumes that Piz took the New York internship to be closer to Veronica as she interned for the FBI. It's also set during season 4 of HIMYM where Barney is dealing with his deadly infection of "feelings". Also, the finger of blame is firmly pointed at otempora42 for putting this idea into my head, and secondmezzanine for rewatching season 1 of VM with me.

The two young men sat at the bar in MacLaren’s, enjoying some beers. Carl’s ID checks had been, as usual, less than thorough, and no one so much as batted an eye at these two 19-year-olds getting wasted.

“Dude, seriously,” Dick said to Logan, “what are we doing here? It’s the middle of summer! We should be down in Brazil, hookin’ up with as many hot chicas as possible, surfing all day and partying all night. Or at least doing the same thing back in Neptune, because it’s still awesome, even if the chicks speak English there. But no. You dragged me across the country to NYC so we could... what? Sit on our asses and wait for some geeky Polack to get off work so you can talk?”

“Veronica wanted me to apologize to Piz for ambushing him like I did,” Logan said tersely, taking another drink. “And I didn't get a chance before the both of them left, so... that’s what we’re here to do.”

“So what?” Dick shook his head. “You and her broke up six months ago, dude. V’s moved on to Piznarski, and yet somehow she’s still got you by the balls. You gotta move on. You and your feelings are harshing my mellow.”

One of their fellow patrons, who had been waiting for a tumbler of scotch, perked up his ears at this and turned to them. “Did you say... Feelings?” Barney Stinson asked curiously.

“Yeah,” said Dick, jerking his thumb at Logan. “This one’s still hung up on some hard-ass chick who won’t have anything to do with him.”

“You watch the way you talk about Veronica,” Logan growled.

Barney shook his head sadly. “Feelings is a very dangerous malady, kids,” he said gravely. “If you’re not careful and take the measures to protect yourself from them, you could end up with a terminal case. Or worse: married.” Barney shuddered. “Don’t you worry. Uncle Barney’s here to help.” He winked at the pair of them.

“Right, because calling yourself that isn’t creepy at all,” Logan remarked sarcastically.

Barney ignored him. “You’ve got to stop moping around about this chick,” he told Logan firmly.

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Dick chimed in, grinning and smacking Barney on the shoulder with brotherly camaraderie. Barney gave him a smile that was more like a grimace, rolling his shoulder back like he was trying to shrug him off, before continuing.

“Kid, take it from me. No chick’s worth the trouble. I mean, can this Valerie chick even handle her scotch?”

“Veronica,” corrected Logan in somewhat of a huff. “And she’s just...” He hesitated. “She is the strongest person I know. She doesn’t give a damn what people think about her, and she’s never afraid to go after the truth, no matter what it might cost her. She’s smart, and beautiful, and brave, and fiercely independent.” Barney just looked at him. “And yes, she can handle her scotch,” Logan sighed.

Though Barney was looking at Logan witheringly, the truth was he could relate. Logan’s girl sounded like she had more than a few thing in common with Robin; and since Robin would never love him, this chick would surely never love Logan back either. It was up to Barney to save the kid from himself.

“All right,” Barney said, pretending to roll up his sleeves. “That’s it. Y- what’s your name?”

“Logan Echolls.”

“Logan Echolls,” Barney repeated dramatically, “I’m gonna teach you how to live.”

“Yeah,” said Logan, rolling his eyes. “Pretty sure I’ve already lived more than you ever will.”

Barney scoffed. “Please. Aren’t you like, twelve?”

“Nineteen.”

“Like I said, then.”

Logan felt his blood start to boil. “Look, I’m not gonna get into my entire life story with you right now, but just... trust me. There isn’t a whole lot for you left to teach me about what a shitty place the world can be.”

“So some bully stole your lunch money on the playground,” Barney shrugged. “Get over it.”

“I was the guy who stole people’s lunch money,” Logan corrected, “or I would have been if I’d been poorer, or if I hadn’t been too busy smashing their headlights to take money I didn’t need. But I mean, things at home were... bad. My older sister took off as soon as she could, my mom ended up throwing herself off a bridge when I was 17, and my dad...” Logan froze. “Well, I’d really rather not talk about him. Ever.”

Barney’s eyebrows raised. “Geez. Melodramatic much?”

The insensitive way with which his childhood trauma was being treated was almost too much for Logan to take. “Listen, you jackass,” he said hotly, “you don’t know anything about me, all right? I’ve gone through more in nineteen years than most people go through in a lifetime. I’ve been living in a hotel for two years, my- my first girlfriend was murdered, I’ve been in trouble with the law more times than I care to remember-- I was wrongfully accused first degree murder twice when I was still in high school!” Logan was starting to yell now, tears of anger stinging his eyes as his vision started to go red.

Barney just patted Logan on the head. “Sure you were, kid. Now! Take note, boys. Bro Code Article 41: ‘A Bro never cries.’ Unless you’re watching Field of Dreams, E.T., or a sports legend retire.” He nodded at Logan. “You might want to pay special attention to that.”

Logan would have lost it at that moment, had he not remembered what had happened last time he lost his temper and beat someone to a bloody pulp. Veronica’s face and voice swam before his eyes, the way she’d looked at him with such anger and hatred as she’d slammed his bedroom door in his face.

So Logan swallowed his anger and chimed back with, “What makes you think you can give us advice? I mean, for goodness’ sake, man. You dress like my old high school principal.”

“Totally dresses like Clemmons,” said Dick unnecessarily. “He’s got one of those... tie things.”

Barney straightened his tie ostentatiously. “For your information, children,” he said somewhat huffily, “this happens to be the finest double-breasted Armani. Wear this to a bar and the chicks’ll be all over you! They’ll see you have standards!” Logan and Dick looked at one another and snorted. “Besides, Bro Code Article 45: ‘A Bro never wears jeans to a strip club.’”

“We’re not going to a strip club tonight,” Logan pointed out.

Barney just chuckled. “Oh, my scrawny little friend. You have much to learn.”

Barney then spent the next hour going over all the articles and corollaries of the Bro Code, buying the two underage men scotch while telling them the ins and outs of being each other’s wingmen. Neither of them were paying much attention, however: Dick kept zoning out to scope out the bar, making eyes at the bimbos that usually came to MacLaren’s for happy hour. Logan, meanwhile, was busy staring into his drink, thinking forlornly about Veronica.

“And most importantly...” Barney’s eyes clouded slightly. “Article 150. ‘No sex with your Bro’s ex.’”

“Oh, he’s already broken that one,” Dick chimed in, slightly bitterly. Logan looked at him, stricken. He’d always feel guilty about his rebound with Madison because of how Veronica had handled the news; he didn’t need someone like Dick Casablancas adding to his guilt.

Barney looked back and forth between the two rich boys before saying under his breath to Dick, “You didn’t punch him in the junk, did you?”

“Nah,” he said. “I ran off to Vegas and got married to this hot crazy bitch for 26 hours.”

Barney nodded. “Good. That’s... good. Because, you know,” he went on, recovering, “otherwise, you would have broken Article 38. And there’s no coming back from that. Just ask... not me. Some other dude I know that that happened to.”

Just then, another young man with longish brown hair walked into the bar; Logan looked over and nudged Dick in the ribs. “Look, it’s Piz,” he murmured.

Barney snorted. “What kind of name is ‘Piz’?” he asked disdainfully.

“What kind of name is ‘Barney’?” Logan shot back, getting out his wallet and throwing down a hundred for their drinks. “Look, man, it was nice talking to you and all, but we’ve got to take off.”

“Yeah,” Dick said. “But you should totally come surfing with us sometime!” he added enthusiastically.

Barney didn’t even try to disguise his look of horror. “Yeeeeeah, no.”

Dick shrugged. “Your loss,” he said, following Logan over to Piz’s table and sitting down beside Logan as they talked.

Barney shook his head, finishing off his scotch and ordering a third, surreptitiously scoping out the bar for bimbos. There was a brunette at the end who looked like she was nearly too drunk to stand, and he smirked. Tonight, it looked like she was the perfect antidote for this deadly infection of Feelings.

Christmahanukwanzaadan is approaching!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:41:23 GMT

A lot of people seem to be doing this already, so I thought I would too!

The holidays are approaching (well, okay, they're two months away, but this way I'll have time to get everything together), and I'm offering a Christmas card/letter to anyone who wants one. Included in the card will be a lovely long ramble (because I've gotten very good at writing rambly letters) with possible bad doodles included in the margins, and a drabble, which will be my holiday present to you. =D

(It's annoying how we have to make Christmas all faith-neutral now. The holiday's become commercialized enough as it is. Does calling late December "Christmastime" really offend anyone anymore?)

So what I need from all of you are your addresses (which you can leave in the screened comments or PM to me), what (if any) holiday you celebrate, and drabble prompts. Please include fandom, character/pairing, and a scenario or prompt word for me to go off of. I've been known to dabble in a vast variety of fandoms and do a lot of strange crossovers, and I'm always willing to try writing new ones as long as I'm already familiar with it. Check my tags or profile page if you need some hints as to what I watch/read. And while I'm best at writing things around PG-13, I have been known to go beyond that, if that's what you'd rather have from me. =P

So hit me wit' yo' digits -- er, addresses, and in a few weeks you'll have a lovely present in your mailboxes from Phoenix! =D

Fitting together like two pieces of a very attractive puzzle...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:26:45 GMT

Had a good week this week! Not too stressful school-wise, thank goodness, other than a couple registration snafus. Sadly, I didn't get into the WT course I wanted to, but it's totally fine because I found one just as awesome, where we get to analyze the female superhero's role in pop culture. And here's my spring lineup:

- Film Directing
- Contemporary Writers
- (De)Constructing the Other (another lit course)
- Thesis hours!

Best part? None of these classes start before 12:30. So, yes. I'm excited. If somewhat terrified at the thought of having to start tackling my thesis.

I have blogging to do about V and HIMYM and probably other stuff, and I have a meme to do, but I'm putting those off for later. For now, I just had to share this completely awesome Youtube vid I found. It takes clips from Lost and shows the interrelationships between all the characters, AND it's set to the Veronica Mars theme song ("We Used to be Friends" by the Dandy Warhols), AND it's edited really, really well, so it's pretty much the most awesome video ever made by anyone ever.

Happy Friday, y'all!

My very own Sophie's Choice...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:14:56 GMT

...by way of a Marry, Shag, Snog, Cliff meme. =P

Comment to this post and receive 4 options (actors/singers/so on, so forth). You must then decide which of the 4 options you would: Shag, Snog, Marry and Throw off a cliff.

snogged gave me Josh Radnor, Nathan Fillion, John Krasinski, and Kevin McHale.

Marry: Snogged, you could NOT have given me a more difficult choice than to give me John Krasinski AND Josh Radnor in this meme. But since you did... after a long deliberation, and eventually flipping a coin, I'm going with Josh. Because he's smart and funny and HOT and seems really down to earth. Plus, he can write a screenplay like nobody's business. Which is ultra sexy and very impressive and made me claim HIM, not Ted, as my husband. (Though if you've read Happythankyoumoreplease, you'd know that Josh is basically Ted.)

Shag: Again, a debate as to whether to give this to J-Kras as the consolation prize (Jim's been my TV husband for FIVE YEARS!!) or to Nathan for sheer shagability. But then I saw this picture and knew John had to win it. ;) Jim may be getting on my nerves a bit this season, but he and John will always have a special place in my &hearts .

Snog: Goes to Nathan by default. Though the Fillion-Krasinski showdown probably could have gone either way. At any rate, Nathan is gorgeous and hilarious and adorable and I would happily plant one on him if I ever had the opportunity. =D

Cliff:
Kevin McHale. I love his voice, he's very close to my age, and Artie's one of my many faves on Glee; but he's a much more recent love, he's very close to my age (there's like an 8-month age difference) and pierced ears are a turnoff for me. (Yes, the age thing is both a plus and a minus.) So off the cliff Kevin goes. But a very, very small cliff, so he won't end up in a wheelchair. =P

I have yet to do any of my homework from this weekend. I should probably get on that, especially studying for my film midterm. Eep!

HOLD THE PHONE, GUYS.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:35:57 GMT

Apparently we have to wait THREE WEEKS until the next new Glee episode?!?!?

Apparently it's called "Wheels," which makes me think it's about ARTIE, and it's going to feature... wait for it... Defying Gravity with Rachel and... wait for it... KURT. I heard a 30 second clip on Youtube today and while I've never been a huge fan of Wicked, I'm SO EXCITED NOW. AND WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NOVEMBER 11TH FOR THE NEW EPISODE. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH.

Another awesome thing I heard on Youtube today: Artie singing Dancing With Myself. It might or might not be in THIS episode, but my thinking is that it could be. AND IT SOUNDS SO GOOD AND WAY DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL WHICH HAS ME REALLY EXCITED SINCE MOST OF THE SONGS ON THE SHOW HAVE BEEN KARAOKE SO FAR.

Shenanigans. I HATE YOU FOX. YOU AND YOUR BASEBALL PLAYOFFS FOR THE LOOOOOOOOOSE.

Glee-dux: Good times never seemed so good!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:14:23 GMT

So while this episode wasn't my favorite, and there were a few little things that bothered me, I really enjoyed it. And what with HIMYM continually slipping week to week, Glee is, once again, my favorite show of the week. Step it up, HIMYM. You don't want to lose to the kids in the social subbasement. They've got corn syrup in their eyes after getting slushies tossed in their faces every day.

The highlight of this episode, for me: Puck/Rachel. Guys, I think I have a new Glee OTP. They're two good-looking Jews... why fight it? But in all seriousness, I think they had a good rapport this episode, great chemistry between both actors... oh, and they made out and it was hot. And how could you NOT melt when Puck sang Sweet Caroline for her? I need a Puck icon SO badly. Because from here on in, I will take a leaf from TWOP's book and start calling him "My glorious husband". Because I call him, no matter what Lark says. Heh.

This was also the episode where I think I finished falling out of love with my previous Glee OTP, Will/Emma. It's only too obvious how this is going to play out, and I don't think the way they are now is okay at all. He's married, and just because Terri's a lying shrew doesn't make it okay to cheat on her. And Ken doesn't deserve to be treated the way he is. Yeah, he's a little odd and has a lot of strange medical problems, but at least he's aware of the situation he's in. Which is more than Will "Sorry Bro" Schuester can say.

Other things: The slushie war was wonderfully silly and gross, and I loved the bit where Finn and Quinn walked around in sunglasses thinking it made them cooler. I also liked seeing a softer side of Sue, even if it was majorly freaking me out. And Quinn's off the Cheerios, which means she actually has to wear *GASP* actual clothes for the rest of the season?! Nooooooooes!

Nitpick: When did Kurt get off the football team? I guess he quit after he came out, which makes sense, but I wish we could have had some acknowledgement of that. This show's actually been pretty good with the continuity so far (e.g. the remarks about what happened last week when Sue teamed up with Will to run Glee, mentions of the high B being the brass ring for a baritenor, and, of course, the constant mention of the word CONFIDENCE that drove me up the wall in Acafellas. I don't think I'll ever be able to hear that word again on this show without screaming.

Completely random: I really want to start calling Finn Frankenteen from now on. Not because I dislike him (I love him in a cuddly, special cookie sort of way), but because it's funny.

Music: Rap is funny. I do not approve of it as an art form. Or coming from the mouth of the glorious Matthew Morrison, who I just heard in Hairspray and so would love to hear more of him actually singing. He's a good rapper, but... no more.

And now, quotes I thought were funny/awesome:
- "I want 'The Thong Song'. I need something I can shake my moneymaker to!" - Ken
- "Rachel was a hot Jew, and the Good Lord wanted me to get into her pants." - My glorious husband
- "So what's the problem? Too many friends on Myspace?" - Emma
- "My mom put 'being popular' as her main extracurricular activity. She got into Arizona State." - Quinn
- "We need advice on how to be cool. And we figured, after you've had years of watching other people do it..." - Finn
- "We're a couple of good-looking Jews. It's natural." - My glorious husband
- "Are you questioning my badassness? Have you SEEN my guns?" - My glorious husband
- "You know what the worst part is? It's not the burning in your eyes or the way the slushie drips all the way into your underpants. It's the humiliation. *deadpan* I feel like I could burst into tears at any moment." - My glorious husband
- "Wait, what showdown? I thought you and Sue had that last week." - Emma (Oh, meta commentary!)
- "Do it." "I really don't want to, honestly. I know how picky you are about the products you use on your face." - Kurt, Finn
- "I don't buy that. I don't think any one decision makes your life. Unless you accidentally invent some kind of zombie virus or something." - Finn
- "Schuester! I changed my mind. I want that set list for Sectionals after all. I want it on my desk, warm from the laminator, at 5 pm. And if it is one minute late, I will go down to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat. And then, one night, I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face." - Sueeeeeee!
- "Mr. Schue, I am sorry to report that we have all been remiss about completing our assignment this week. ...And I personally feel like a failure." - Artie!

I think overall, this episode gets an A- from me. It was good, but not awesome. And I'd love for Will to actually sing something, instead of rapping.

Law paper done, yayz. Filming this weekend with little idea of what we're doing, less yayz. But my week's over, which IS yayz!

HIMYM redux: Oh, LAME...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:53:43 GMT

So CBS is epically failing at the moment, since last night's episode hasn't been posted yet for me to rewatch (and possibly reform my opinions?). But I'm going to write up about it anyway.

So this episode was a vast improvement over last week, but I'm still not completely sold on it. I've spent some time trying to figure out why, and I think I've got it:

Marshall and Lily have become obnoxiously out of character this season.

Honestly. It's like the writers have completely forgotten what to do for them, or what made them so great in the first place. They've become a lame sitcom cliche of a married couple, where the husband is a manchild, the wife is a shrew, and when contrasted with single people like Ted, they're so codependent that they're practically the same person. Lily and Marshall were shown as codependent to some extent before they got married, but they've been married for two years by now and NONE of this has shown up until now, two years and some change into their marriage. At any rate, my irritation with what's become of this couple really hampered my enjoyment of the episode.

However, there were good things. Barney and Robin were very IC, and so was Ted, sort of. He was a little too busy stuck in the single guy vs. married couple trope this week to fully be himself. He and Marshall reaffirming their friendship was a really nice touch, though. (But that's another thing. How would Marshall not GET that Ted needed some time with just him? Conversely, doesn't he get at this point in his relationship with Lily that they don't have to do every single thing together? They haven't for the first four seasons of this show!)

Amusing things: Canadian Robin and her crazy antics. Ted (and Marshall and Lily) on Tantrum. Barney's speech in the Timmy Ho's (and even him getting beat up was kind of funny, just because I loved the shot of the little hockey kid locking the door. Though he gets beat up a little too much for it to keep being hilarious.) Callback to 500 Miles. Barney being actually Barney-like and making crude jokes, albeit about his girlfriend. But hey, she liked it, so no harm done, I guess? And... that's all I can remember. It's been over 24 hours since I saw it, and my attention was diverted by my parents, brothers, and media law textbook.

Nitpick: Marshall wouldn't allow food or drink in the Fiero, not even water. How does their beef jerky/Tantrum diet fit into that?

Another nitpick: The Fiero got crushed into a cube three seasons ago. Whose car were they driving in, and when did they get it? (It's possible they explained this at the beginning of the episode, since I did miss the very beginning of the ep. But I could have sworn Ted said they were going in the Fiero, even though they couldn't have been because a) it's a cube, and b) Fieros have no backseat for Lily to obnoxiously ride around in.)

Final nitpick: Did Lily and Ted's friendship just evaporate for this episode? She was being completely inconsiderate of him and he was treating her pretty coldly. He was basically "Yo Marshall, let's ditch your lame wife and go get cruddy pizza like old times!" And she was basically like "Marshmallow, let's have a vacation with just the two of us. Hey, why's your lame best friend tagging along?" Le SIGH!

Lastly, an embarrassing confession: I thought this episode was called "Dual Citizenship" when I first watched it, and so everyone calling it "Duel" in their LJs was driving me up the WALL. (As was Robin's struggle to choose a country to belong to, since I kept saying "Just get dual citizenship already!" at every turn.) But apparently that's the right way to spell the title and I'm an idiot. That one letter actually changes a lot of my interpretation of the episode, since I would have otherwise posted a rant on how Robin's storyline was a waste of my half hour, if they were going to put her choice in the episode title.

In conclusion... yes, this episode was better than last week's by a long shot. But until Lily and Marshall start being themselves again, I will not be pleased. I'm so annoyed at the show's treatment of them as characters and a pairing, I can't even assign this episode a completely arbitrary grade. I'll just look at my icon and sigh for days gone by.

Brief Castle redux, since I actually saw this week! This was a really good episode, I thought. The case was really interesting, and even though I knew it was the husband from the moment he came onscreen (he was Dominic on Dollhouse, guys!), I didn't see the twist with the switched-at-birth thing coming. Plus, I loved Castle and Beckett's banter. And his dedication to her in his book was so sweet!

Back at school after an awesome (and way too short) fall break. I've mainly got reading to do this week, which is great, so long as I do it all. And I plan to. Oh, I plan to.

Fall break redux: Birds of a feather!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:59:49 GMT

The HIMYM and TV redux will come later. Probably tomorrow. Because right now I really have to blog about real life stuff. Specifically (because I can say that word, HAH), my fall break and awesometown weekend with LARK!

So I'm sure a lot of you have already read about our weekend on Lark's journal, but I feel the need to post about it as well, for posterity. (Or for Narnia?) And also because we had loads of fun, and it was certainly the highlight of my month, if not my entire year thus far, and to have no record of it in my journal is somewhat criminal.

So my friend Kelly drove me to Lark's school on Friday and, on the top of a misty parking garage, Lark and I met for the first time. First words out of my mouth (after "LAAAAAAAARK!!!!!!" and a huge tacklehug) were "Oh my god, you're a real person!" After only talking online for so long (other than a few brief Skype sessions), it was so cool to finally come face to face with someone I've become best friends with. And she got along great with my family, which was awesome, since I'd been a little worried about that? My mom had been surprisingly cool about me inviting an online friend over to stay with us for the weekend, but I'd still been a little nervous. But I shouldn't have been, because they loved her and everyone was totally chill. So yay!

We've been planning this weekend for a while... so long, actually, that it would have been impossible to do everything we'd planned to. Friday we got back late and hung around online until 3 am talking to our other online besties; and Saturday, we basically just chilled around my house all day, since it was too rainy to go outside (or do sidewalk chalk, grr). We played Harry Potter Clue with my brothers and ate yummy soup and read about crazy complicated cupcakes that look like penguins (which my dad finally made today, btw, and which are adorable and are sitting in my freezer) and made several amusing rambly songvideos that I'm sure most of you have seen by now, and which I greatly enjoy watching even though I'm IN them. And we watched a bit of Glee and about half an episode of HIMYM, and stayed up until ungodly hours of the night, which would have been more fun had I not been completely paranoid someone was going to wake up and discover we were still awake and scream at us. (My parents are completely aware we were up until 6 am Sunday morning, btw. So far, they have not bitten off my head, as you can tell by the fact that I am still alive to write this blog entry.)

So even though we had a list of things to do, we basically just ended up chilling, which was amazing for two reasons. Firstly, because I'm thrilled our online friendship translated to real life as well as it did (another thing I'd been nervous about, since I'm hugely insecure and think if people see me and talk to me outside of my little chatbox, they'll hate me). But also because it was something I haven't really done a lot of in... well, ever. I lost that kind of close friendship in eighth grade when all my friends went to different high schools than I'd gone to. (My high school process was kind of like my college process? I'd gone to Catholic school, and in 8th grade everyone has to apply to different Catholic high schools. I, however, went to public school, and in the process ended up losing all the friends I'd made since first grade. I guess in high school I was just too tired to have to go through it all again, so I didn't have any close friends, really.) And there haven't been loads of people in college I've connected with to that point.

At any rate, hanging out is fun. I'm only sad I'm just discovering it now, when I'm 20 years old.

Oh, and then on Sunday we went to my mall and saw The Invention of Lying, which was pretty good (though I almost fell asleep in a couple parts. I blame getting 4 hours of sleep the night before and the ridiculously comfortable chairs in the theater). And then we had to go back, which was sad, because it felt like we hadn't spent a whole lot of time together. Even two whole days isn't a whole lot of time.

I wish all of you lived closer to me, so we could all have epic weekends like the one Lark and I had. Hanging out with any and/or all of my online besties in person would be completely epic. Speaking of which, I still say all RP members should form a colony called Awesometown and move there so we can all live together. It's America! We can do that here! (Sort of.)

OH. COMPLETELY RANDOM, BUT THIS HAS TO DO WITH OUR WEEKEND.

All you who watch Glee, I'm about to drop some knowledge:

ARTIE IS COMPLETELY HOT. (And, even more random: he used to be in a boy band.)

Check it:

I think I'm in looooove. /Taco Bell chihuahua

Brief school stress before I go: I checked my midterm grades, and while I do have a surprising A in modernism (YAY!!), I have a D in media law. A *D*. That doesn't include my last test, but I don't think I did too well on that. My only hope is to do amazing on my remaining test and last two written assignments (one of which I have due on Thursday), learn how to actually write a legal argument, and to study my oversized ass off for the rest of the semester. If I do that, then I might end up with a B. But I'm obviously not doing enough for this course at the moment, even if I feel like I understand a lot of the material. I just have trouble retaining it, I guess. That, and my writing style is too rhetorical. Whatever that means.

Oh, and I have a C+ in poetry. What the fuck?! Do reading quizzes really count for THAT much of my grade?

(B in film production. About what I expected. And hey, I have the alphabet on my report card at the moment. I am very displeased by this.)

In other news, my MSN hasn't been letting me log on tonight. This makes me sadder than it probably should. Guess I should go to bed so I'm not dead when my family parades past me tomorrow morning at 7 am to say good-bye, since I'm heading back to school after they all leave for work/school.