mine's a tale that can't be told.

I am downloading Misfits right now even though I've been trying to hold off on starting any new shows soon because I can't get away from it on Tumblr and it looks/sounds so awesome and the temptationnn. Plus the twin very evilly started watching it without me even after we expressly had an agreement that we would watch this together and for once enjoy a show for the first time squeeing over it in unison and all, since we always end up nagging each other into watching the new things we get into anyway so it only makes sense. (DAMN YOU LAYLA. FOR SHAME.)

I also keep thinking fleetingly about finally starting Lost because listening to Michael Giacchino's music for it has me like What is WITH these track titles? And this intense creepy-sounding stuff? What IS this show? LOL. But this seems like a terrible idea because based on everything I've heard I will probably be totally bonkers for it and not be able to stop watching it, and...yeah, job hunting. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. Responsible things...

Anyway, mostly just posting for this meme....


I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...she likes office supplies." I'd love it if every single person who friended me would do this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal. In return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an answer.)

So I...started watching Supernatural...? It feels hilarious to write that because I'd been starting to feel like kind of a freak for never having seen a single episode of it, LOL. I can't say exactly why, but I was just stubbornly resisting it for a long time, even though I always thought it was something I might try watching someday in the far future when I'm no longer seeing it everywhere (often preceded by the unsavory reputation the fandom has gotten). I don't think I was annoyed by the mass popularity, but for some reason I had these snotty doubts about Supernatural being completely worth the time and got over it, maybe mostly because I was just sick of feeling left out. Haha.

Well, I'm now through all of the second season and can easily say it's a lot better than I expected. And based on what I knew about it I did honestly expect to like it, but maybe in more of a guilty-pleasure way. Of course it does have an element of cheesiness (as if that ever stopped me from liking Smallville or various anime), but Jared and Jensen are pretty capable actors who can usually sell anything the script throws at them really well, and the heavily character-oriented storytelling means everything else kind of takes care of itself and the series never feels constrained by the "monster of the week" formula that so easily gets cumbersome and boring in other shows.

I'm prepared to see how long that lasts, of course. But already I've found it one of the most impressive shows of its type I've seen as far as keeping strong continuity with everything from the established rules of its fantasy world to the characters' motivations, nuances, and overall development. So much that it's kind of feels too good to be true and I'm not sure I'll be too crushed if/when it loses a lot of that later because it does have much farther to fall than to rise (and I've seen other shows burn out in quality after much less time than this one has now stayed on TV, after all).

I've never been especially into the horror genre at all, but I've enjoyed seeing the explorations of certain urban legends that I can remember seriously freaking me out when I was a kid (forget not being able to say "Bloody Mary" out loud — I sometimes got scared of just going into the bathroom at night because of that myth). And I'm definitely a sucker for how it's all done with this dirty-bluesy-southern-gothic style with lots of classic rock usage that isn't just essential to Dean's character but fitting as part of that whole mise-en-scène. In fact, one thing that finally pushed me to check out the show sooner than later was finding out that one episode builds on the legend about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil. I'm finding myself having fun making a mental checklist of superstitions, rumors, and lore they could still use or make reference to in later episodes, from changelings to Jim Morrison's claims that he was haunted all his life by the spirits of some Native Americans he saw dead from a car accident when he was a kid.

The gorgeous Impala is wasted until they work in more badass car chase scenes, though. XD Which is the only kind of eye candy I will comment on, because um, of course I watch solely for the plot, are the Winchesters considered attractive or something, hadn't heard....



On with ze meme.

Every day for thirty days you post about an awesome female character. Pictures! Recs! Squee! What's not to love?

Day 1: Pepper Potts
Day 2: Martha Jones
Day 3: Toph Bei Fong




PROFESSOR MINERVA McGONAGALL
Harry Potter

It took me a while to warm up to McGonagall, but she became one of my favorite background characters in the series. She's usually so strict and by-the-book and I guess it took Order of the Phoenix to show that she can definitely disregard the rules when the rules are wrong. And in all likelihood had a crazy wild side in her youth that I bet can probably still come out after enough butterbeer.

Crowning Moments of Awesome: "It unscrews the other way." / Pretty much any time she's in Umbridge's presence and gets to pwn her and remain classy while doing so




NUMBER SIX
Battlestar Galactica

Virtually every Six we get to know in the series is fascinatingly unique, showing as a whole that a primary distinguishing trait of the model seems to be, ironically, their fierce individuality (they're the only model line that don't share one common name, after all). But even narrowing it down to just the original Caprica Six we were first introduced to, I think she stands out as one of BSG's greatest characters. She can be believably scary one moment and believably vulnerable the next, approaching human experience with such unfamiliarity and innocence that she makes the most ridiculous and unreasonable emotions look like the finest point in the masterpiece that is human nature instead of a weakness that takes away from any of her complexity.

Crowning Moments of Awesome: Turning against D'Anna and letting Anders go on Caprica / Clocking Boomer in the face when she's about to hurt Hera

1. Every day for thirty days you post about an awesome female character. Pictures! Recs! Squee! What's not to love?

Day 1:


PEPPER POTTS
Iron Man

Whoever first said "Behind every great man is a great woman" was obviously talking about Tony Stark's long-suffering assistant. It's so refreshing to see a character like Pepper in a big action franchise who can be strong without the ability to physically kick somebody's ass and isn't just there as eye candy in skin-tight leather either. She's not just the best secretary in the universe but able to run an entire company while Tony's too busy with the funner parts of being a super hero. I love that she knows him too well/is generally too awesome to be mindlessly impressed by the whole Iron Man thing and throwing herself at him before the time that it's actually a right decision, and until then her character is not angstily consumed or defined by that tension being there. In fact, despite her claim that she doesn't have anyone else in her life either, you almost get the idea that he needs her more than she needs him. She could just get too fed up with him and run off with Happy the driver someday, after all. (Oh wait, that's in canon...)


2. I watch so few shows besides stuff that I download that it always feels a little weird when I actually take time to turn on the TV and just...see what's on...and watch it. Today I was just going through the guide to see when Sherlock is supposed to air on PBS (yeah, I'm going to watch some of it again just because it's on TV here even though I've seen it a million times, LOL) and ended up watching an episode of the Granada series on there, which I didn't know they showed. (It was "The Blue Carbuncle," which left me all in the mood for Christmas time and then I thought, Oh right...It's still October. LOL.)

Anyway, I saw their preview for Sherlock while I was watching it and noticed that they used Hans Zimmer's theme from the Ritchie movie in it. That's kind of funny. The scores do coincidentally sound very similar at times.

3. I really can't believe it myself, but I've only recently begun catching up on Doctor Who when I hadn't watched any since "Journey's End." There's surely nothing new to be said by now about the specials and I'm sure almost everyone found something to hate about them, but I loved them. "The End of Time" didn't really stand up to some of my favorite episodes ever as much as I was expecting, but I still thought it was very good. Especially when Timothy Dalton's face suddenly filled the screen and ninety6tears and I couldn't help but crack up laughing in surprise. (And OMG, I was never really into the Doctor/Master slashiness before but all their interaction killed me this time around. Hehe.)

I've also finally been watching Torchwood for the first time. My reasons for loving it can basically be summed up in this picture. LMAO.



I have a friend who for a while kept enthusiastically trying to force Children of Earth on me whenever I was hanging out at his house, and I had to keep telling him no matter how much better it is I just can't watch the third season of something before the rest. Ironically the reason I was insistent about not being spoiled is because I'd already heard about who dies in it, just like anyone who spends any time on LJ probably heard enough about it to be able to figure it out (people always think they're being so vague about spoilers *eyeroll*). But the only thing worse than hearing about a character dying before you get to that point is getting to that point before you've even had a chance to start caring about the character and it can have the proper effect on you.

So yeah, I do see now why people don't exactly excitedly recommend the first two seasons. I'm really not the kind of person who watches something with a critical eye spotting all the plot holes and inconsistencies, generally because that's just one thing I'm kind of slow about, lol. But there were several moments especially in season 1 that I actually was scratching my head and going Wait... because something didn't seem to totally make sense. If it doesn't get past me, then the logic must be pretty bad. Haha. But even though the Torchwood Declassified documentaries are half full of RTD congratulating himself on how ~dark~ this episode is just like last week and next week, I find the real appeal is that even in the darkest and creepiest episodes like "They Keep Killing Suzie" the show maintains sort of a tongue-in-cheek and morbidly humorous feel. I mean, the episodes do have titles like "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Countrycide." LOL. I guess when it's not the more intelligent show it becomes by Series 3, it makes up for it for me that it at least has a sense of fun about it. And I think I'd actually be a little disappointed if the show never regained some of its stupidity following Children of Earth, so hopefully the next season will have a mix of seriousness and ridiculousness to keep everyone happy.

I just spent a ridiculous portion of the day redoing my entire tagging system on Delicious, and this all started with me deciding it was finally time to make separate tags for each Sherlock Holmes universe now that there are three (bookverse, SH09 movieverse, and Sherlock-verse) encompassed in my bookmarks. This led to me making a tag bundle for everything Holmes, which led to other new tag bundles, and then I got started thinking I should have all my character and pairing tags at the top of my tags page while random labels like "drunk_kirk_is_so_cute" and "imprinting_is_evil" and "holmes/violin=otp" would all be separated from them.

Hours later I'm still retagging shit. But now they're so beautiful and organized! XD Until I change my mind about how stuff should be arranged again. I'm fine leaving my purse or important documents or entire car a mess half the time, but when it comes to things like my bookmarks and LJ tags and items on my Wishpot I get obsessive about having everything neat and orderly and just so. Tell me I'm not the only one, LOL.

Alrighty, couple memes...

1. Comment with “SHOWTIME!” and I will give you five actors and five actresses. Then post in your journal-of-choice what your favorite film of theirs is and why.

ninety6tears gave me...

KATE WINSLET. Quills, with Finding Neverland a close second. There is no need to explain this one, FOOLS.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY. I'm going to arbitrarily say Atonement because it also has The Cumberbatch in it. "Smashing slacks" OMG his character is so creepy, lol.
MERYL STREEP. Angels In America because this is me we're talking about.
ZIYI ZHANG. Crouching Tiger is in my top ten movies. Typical Ang Lee perfection.
NICOLE KIDMAN. Moulin Rouge. Surprisingly one of my three favorite movies considering I usually hate musicals. Haters gonna hate, you either dig it or really can't stand it.
JOHNNY DEPP. I still totally love Sleepy Hollow for the pure fun.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX. Walk the Line. Thank God this was one of the biopics to start the way-past-Ghandi age of non-boring biopics.
BRUCE WILLIS. The Fifth Element. "Negative, I am a meat popsicle." Everybody loves The Fifth Element.
ALAN RICKMAN. Sweeney Todd because it's not a very conventional musical and, you know, just surprisingly amazing in general given it's about a homicidal barber.
AL PACINO. Dick Tracy because I didn't want to say AiA again and...I really should see more of his movies.

2. - Leave a comment saying "round and round the garden like a teddy bear!"
- I'll ask you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
- Update your journal with the answers to your questions.
- Include this explanation and offer to ask other people questions.

eumelkeks inquires...

1. Why do you like Jacob?
When his character isn't being randomly written as an ass because of SMeyer's need to teach young girls to feel threatened by anything resembling normal sexuality, he's a refreshingly not-too-intense, funny, reasonably normal, and unpretentious character in the sea of bullshit Shakespeare quoting that is that whole series. (I tried really hard to answer that without saying anything that's specifically in comparison to Edward because I do actually like Edward usually. He's just excruciatingly painful to observe through Bella's swooning and worshipping POV, lol.)
2. What keeps you sane when shit hits the fan?
Tea. Music. And I guess my general ability to not let stuff get to me too much and always know it's not the end of the world. When something bad's happened people sometimes comment on me acting weirdly mild about it as if I don't care, but I guess I just have a way of internalizing things. Probably wouldn't be the case if it were ever a OMG!-life-and-death situation, though.
3. Your feel-good film?
Love Actually.
4. What do you love the most about writing fanfiction?
Because I write mostly short fic for a large variety of different kinds of fandoms, I like switching up the kind of thing I'm doing all the time. I can dabble in an Asian-inspired action fantasy universe, then Victorian England, then try something in modern day that's a little dark and creepy with slash, then some het in a futuristic setting. I guess that's why I don't get bored with fanfic as easily as I do with my much longer original stuff, LOL.
5. Your thoughts on shipping drama?
It's so much more fun when everyone can calm the fuck down and get along. If we have to argue I'd at least like to know it's about something important like whether or not writing certain things is racist or something like that, even though those kind of arguments always have the potential to piss me off a lot more.

Ask about any fandom I'm in and I will tell you:

01. The first character I fell in love with:
02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:
03. The character I'd slap:
04. Current favorite character:
05. My three favorite pairings:
06. My three least favorite pairings:
07: The coolest thing about the canon:
08: The lamest thing about the canon:
09: Story I wish I could read (or art I wish I could see):
10: Story I wish I had written/still want to write:



Aaaaand I'm still taking requests for things to take pictures of for this other meme.

1. TELL ME STUFF TO TAKE PICTURES OF AND I WILL POST THEM TO SHOW YOU. I've seen memes like this going around a lot but never had a camera with which to participate, but now my mama has a new digital camera that I would like to play with. So you know how this works. My DVDs, my pets, whatever.

2. And since I can never see this one going around without doing it again: Post a sentence (or two or a paragraph) from as many of your WIPs as you want, with no explanation attached.

( Read more... )

3. Comment and I'll give you three of your fandoms, then copy and paste the questions onto your journal and fill it out.

ninety6tears gave me Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Skins.

( Questions... )

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.


My questions from ninety6tears...


1. Your novel that you haven't written yet is getting made into a movie. Who directs it, who scores the music, who plays any of the characters, etc.

( Read more... )

2. What is your favorite music video?

( Read more... )

3. If you could only write fic for one fandom for the rest of your life (god forbid), which one would it be?

Though I seem to have the most fun writing for Twilight for some reason despite my low respect for the canon material, I'll say Harry Potter since I can actually imagine people still reading HP fanfic twenty years from now, and that I'll also still like it. I mean shit, it's not like I think I'll look back and regret that Twilight was part of my life but I'm not sure I see myself not being pretty over it after enough time.

4. Favorite quote by a famous person?

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."
Socrates

5. Marlon Brando, James Dean, or Gregory Peck? (Hotness, not talent.)

That's easy, BRANDO. In Streetcar he was like the embodiment of all things indecently hot. Definitely wouldn't have thrown any of them out of bed in a million years, though.






+ As a much belated note, thanks so much nikki6 and lemomina for the v-gifts. Happy holidays, bbs. :)

I have so many recs and other little things I've been meaning to post but can't seem to motivate myself to go ahead and do it. And I also owe you guys fic commentaries for the stories that won in my poll a while ago. The obvious solution is to give myself more little things to do, so...

Ask me my fannish top five anything and I will answer them all in a new post.

I may change it to Top Ten if I feel like it because I just like making lists of things, LOL.

If anyone needs a refresher, my biggest fandoms these days are Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Mad Men, Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, DC Universe, Twilight, and Heroes.

• Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
• NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
• They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
• You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.


Oooh ~self expressive~ okay...

( click for randomness... )