Peregrinations

Question for the BSG fans

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:58:15 GMT

Why exactly is the ending so hated? 'Cause I saw it (having skipped most of season 4, which I did not find watchable), and I didn't think it was that bad.

I actually thought Roslin's death was very touching, especially given what bad shape she was in by the end. Adama's reaction was very moving. Helo and Athena working out their issues and moving forward on the new planet made me happy. I have no idea what was going on with Angel!Starbuck, but whatever. That whole Lee-Starbuck-Anders plot thread was pretty tired even when they trotted it out. But the general "having a fresh start on a gorgeous unspoiled planet" thing was quite nice, I thought. I'm not sure the coda with Head-Baltar and Head-Six was anything more than a writerly, "Hey, guyz, look at this cool idea I just had, lol," but I mean, even it wasn't awful, just not really to any particular point.

So, was it a problem of expectations? What gives with the hate?

(kokorognosis I'm counting on YOU!)

Solomon Kane

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:32:05 GMT

How soon is "soon"?! Can it be this winter so we can have a Sherlock Holmes/Wolfman/Solomon Kane trifecta of period action movie awesomeness?

Can't Stop the Signal

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:31:49 GMT

So those Jane Austen/Classic Monster mashups are pretty clever, right? Well there's a new one out, Mansfield Park and Mummies, and the author needs your help.

She's not asking for handouts, not even asking that you buy a copy of her book: just asking that you spread the word, so that it can reach the same audiences that made Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters successful.

Myself, I'm adding MP&M to my wishlist and hoping I get it for Christmas; it sounds fun, and vastly better than the other two!

Can't stop the signal, guys!

(via sartorias )

Pet Peeves

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:44:08 GMT

How patient are you with books you read? I am not very patient, myself (life is too short for reading bad books!), and if a book fails to grab me within a decent amount of time, or irritates me with its shenanigans, I will put it down no matter how far along in it I am. Earlier this week Kathleen Bryan's* The Serpent and the Rose irked me with its slow pacing, strangely distant narrative voice, and then some asinine thinly-veiled slams against Christianity, and I stopped reading about two-thirds through. Today I have regretfully put aside The Magicians and Mrs Quent, by Galen Beckett.**

I really wanted to like this book! It is a magical Regency-cum-Gothic-cum-Victorian-epic, and the Regency and magic are two great tastes that combine for extra-super-awesomeness! Just think of The Enchanted Chocolate Pot or Mairelon the Magician! (But then, Patricia Wrede is an excellent writer, and her books have just the right mix of period manners, enchantment, and adventure.) Mrs Quent, however, failed to grab my interest; the narrative voice, a sort of inferior Jane Austen pastiche, did not enthrall ... and the author spelled "magic" with a "k" on the end.

Yes, it's a mere pecadillo next to having boring characters and a plot that hasn't started moving at all within the first twenty pages (I told you I'm not patient), but it's one of those minor little things that just drive me up a wall! "Magick," indeed! It's sort of like in the latter seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Willow's magic became "The Magicks," capital letters audible. Please! Get over yourselves! Magic doesn't need to be made more special-er with all those high-scoring letters from the Scrabble game! "Magick" is not more magical than "magic" is; nor is "majick" or "majyk" or "majyck" or whatever other goofy misspellings pompous fantasy authors are coming up with these days. Harrumph!

So now I'm on to the next book in the stack from the library haul, The Bone-Doll's Twin, about which I've heard very good things.***

*a pseudonym for Judith Tarr, whose book Queen of the Amazons, about Hippolyta and Alexander the Great, I read with a great deal of enjoyment.

**another pseudonym, this time for Mark Anthony. It's of interest to me that both books have blurbs on the covers implying that these are debut novels, when in fact, both authors have been published multiple times before. Why do that? Are people more likely to buy debut novels than novels by established authors?

***Well, Orson Scott Card recommended it on his site. Turns out he also recommended Mrs Quent, though, which gives me a little pause. Just because he's a great writer doesn't mean he has awesome taste in books...?

Dear Supernatural, Apocalypse Edition,

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:10:11 GMT

DAMN YOU, SHOW! Why must you kill off all your awesome women characters?! Scratch that: why must you kill off all your women characters, at all, ever? NOOOOOOO!

But li'l Jo's death cemented her as perhaps the awesomest of them all, especially her unflinching rationality in the face of it. And hey, she got to go out with a bang!

Also, how the heck are they going to deal with Lucifer, since the Colt didn't work? I guess God is their only hope! (How's that for subtle?)

Also also, no new episodes 'til January?! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Well, at least it gives me time to make all my deadlines without distraction!

In sum: great episode. Thank you once again, Supernatural, for ripping my heart out of my chest and stomping it into a squishy goo.

Dear Supernatural

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:28:49 GMT

I love you when you are meta. "It's not jumping the shark if you don't come back down!" Exactly!

Also, you made me love Sammy for the first time since ... ever. Well done, show!

Love and kisses,
Me

P.S.

CROWLEY?!?!?! And played by Mark Sheppard?!?! WTF SHOW I AM GEEKING OUT SO HARD.

Addendum to the Most Romantic Movie Moments

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:25:57 GMT

Yesterday while I worked I was watching Terminator 3 again, and at the end there's this (the good stuff starts at 3:00):

When John says, "I am," and Kate takes his hand, I just die, it makes me cry every time, the whole ending of the movie is awesome. This is probably further proof that I am a.) not normal and b.) an enormous softie, but this movie does it right. It's all running jumping (climbing trees?) blowing stuff up (the chase through the city is unintentionally hi-larious--or maybe not unintentionally), with the romance between the two leads being little more than an afterthought, and yet it works. Is it the high strings of aching sorrow and destiny fulfilled on the soundtrack? Is it having the weight of three whole movies (+ the show if you feel like retconning that in) behind this moment? I don't know, but it is just exactly the sort of thing I can't get enough of.

Dear Supernatural

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:09:20 GMT

Nice retcon, guys!

(Erm, I realize thumbs-up Dean makes it seem like I'm being ironic, but I'm really not! Tonight's episode was coooooool! Sam n Dean better turn their not-very-considerable intellects towards the problem of thwarting their "destiny," though, and be quick about it.)

I love this show! (Even though their theology makes no sense.)

Writer's Block: Here's looking at you

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:28:00 GMT

What is your all-time favorite, romantic movie scene? What about it speaks to you?

View 1072 Answers

Unlike pariahsdream I thought I would have a hard time answering this prompt: romance is not my favorite thing in any movie, and for years I told people that Tim Burton's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was my favorite romantic movie in the world. (It was even true for a while! Jane Austen and age have mellowed me, so I can enjoy movies that are more explicitly romance-centric, so long as they don't star Meg Ryan or Tom Hanks. Possession was pretty good!) But then immediately popped into my head this sequence from The Village: (The good stuff starts around 2:30, but The moment is at about 3:23)

It just kills me, I tear up every time I watch it. That right there, with no words and no explanations, symbolizes their relationship, their love, the reason they work. She trusts him to come for her, and he does. The violin and the slo-mo don't hurt, either.

I don't like a lot of talking in my romance, or a lot of swooning and pining. Twilight is bearable as a book because one can read it fairly quickly; on film all those yearning glances, full of passion, take forever (and also look like the actors are suffering upset tummies). Most of the time, I'd rather the characters carry on with the business of what the film is really about (hunting down ancient mummies, smuggling stolen goods from planet to planet, seeking fantastic treasures by following clues left by ancestors of the Knights Templar, battling undead pirates, or VR agents of sentient machines, or killer robots from the future, or what-have-you) and leave the romance almost entirely unspoken.

The kiss towards the end of National Treasure is pretty good too. And I think we can all agree that Pirates of the Caribbean 3 had the best wedding sequence in any movie, ever.

Oh and then of course there's this:

I could talk about the awesomeness of Labyrinth for ever and ever, but I won't. I can't count how many times I've watched the movie (several times a year since I was twelve?), but that moment around 2:02 where he steps forward and takes her into the dance still gives me shivers. Now there's a weird romance. He wants her, and courts her through cruelty; she's too young and naive to understand what he's about. The whole romantic subplot is not something I understood the first time I saw the movie (when I was, like, twelve), but now I can't get enough of it, and David Bowie's Jareth is still the form of dark sexy bad guy, for me. (Note that Sarah ultimately rejects him, however, turning her back on the fantasy world he offers and choosing to become an adult in reality. MAN, that movie is just all kinds of awesome!)

Runners Up include: Belle's "I love you" at the end of the Disney Beauty and the Beast; Mal and Inara's conversation at the end of Serenity; and the final charge at the end of The Last Samurai. What do you mean that's not romantic? :D

What about you guys? *iz curious*

Font Help

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:55:56 GMT

Hey everybody,

I don't suppose anyone can ID the fonts in this picture? I used them pre-computer crash, and now the client needs to know what they are. I have no idea!

If you recognize either of them, please let me know!

ETA: "Wonderland" font is Vintage. Still trying to figure out that crazy script for "Alice", though. I thought it was The King and Queen, but it isn't.

ETA II: VICTORY! The other font is OLHO DE BOI, which has a teeny preview in Photoshop, which is why I couldn't figure it out. Whew!

splat

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:16:18 GMT

So, we bought a house.

And, we moved all our stuff in.

Also, we have a fridge. But no stove, and no hot water.

Also also, I thought one of the cats escaped when the guys brought the fridge, panicked, and then burst into tears when she was found amidst a stack of boxes.

Am exhausted, will write more later. But! We have a house!

SPLAT.

book nerd meme!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:56:29 GMT

X-posted from my dA journal, because: hey, actual content! Books are always a good subject!

A LIT MEME FOR ALL THE BOOK NERDS:

. So, you can read! Congrats!
Are you reading a book right now? How far are you into it and what do you think so far? If you're not, what was the last book you read and how did you feel about it?
I just started Georgette Heyer's Charity Girl, and am about two chapters in. Heyer is my go-to author for fun sparkling witty feel-good un-put-downable light reading, which is about all I can handle at the moment. Like many of hers it has a slow start, but once the wacky hijinks get going I know I won't be able to stop reading it.

. Do you have a favorite book? Do you have... a book you really liked, at least?
Yes! And no! I have many favorite books, books I love, books I believe make the universe a better place just by existing and being read by people, but I can't think of any of them right now. No, that's not true: there's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, for starters, and the full awesomeness of The Lies of Locke Lamora. I would try to think of more impressive, you know, like "literary" books, but I can't. I love books that are fun and cool! Ooh, I just thought of another! Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Brilliant! Oh! And Sunshine by Robin McKinley--possibly the best vampire book ever! And Moby-Dick, which is genius! And--and--and--!

. What would you say is your favorite genre to read? What do you tend to steer away from?
Nautical fiction and fantasy are my favorite genres, although blending the two together usually ends in wailing and gnashing of teeth; all I've read so far is incompetently written and badly researched, "badly" here having the meaning of "not at all", which is enough to drive an armchair sailor up a wall. So I should stay away from nautical fantasy, but I can't, because hope springs eternal and all that. Other than that I will read just about anything so long as it is good (you know, according to my own idiosyncratic tastes), but graphic sex and violence make me put the book down quickly.

. Do you read more fiction or non-fiction/information books?
Definitely fiction, although you should see my nautical reference library!

. How about a favorite author, or perhaps a few?
If Scott Lynch fulfills the promise of Locke Lamora and its sequel, he will definitely be one of my all-time favorites! I think it's so cool that authors being published now are my age, and have the same influences and background that I do: Locke Lamora is named after a Final Fantasy character! How cool is that? Erm ... that geekery aside, I also love Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip, Georgette Heyer of course, P.G. Wodehouse, Patrick O'Brian (the form of nautical fiction as far as I'm concerned), Diana Wynne Jones, Patricia Wrede, Jane Austen, and I'm sure there are more but as I mentally run my eyes over my bookshelves I can't come up with any more at the moment. I don't know if Orson Scott Card counts as a favorite author, but everything I've read by him has been excellent, and I would unhesitatingly recommend him to anyone!

. Have you read any terrible books? Something you'd recommend staying away from?
Have I ever! I can't remember the titles of some of those aforementioned horrible nautical fantasies, because I couldn't finish a page of them! So many books are not readable not because their subject matter is disgusting or anything like that; the craftsmanship is just so far below acceptable I can't endure it long enough to see if there's a good story hidden in there.

. Do you reread books, or is once enough? Any exceptions so far?
All the time! A beloved book is worth coming back to time and again. Not to mention, I have such a hard time finding new books to read, I'm often forced to fall back on old favorites just to be reading something.

. What were some of your favorite books as a child?
Dominic by William Steig (I didn't know the name of the author for the longest time; it was just Dominic, and I checked it out of the school library roughly a gajillion times), the Bunnicula books by James Howe, Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones, and the whole gamut of tear-jerking animal books like Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe and Where the Red Fern Grows. I didn't discover fantasy 'til sixth grade, when my friend Shane lent me Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown. I was instantly hooked.

. Do you usually pick books from the kids, teen, young adult, or adult books? How old are you, if you don't mind?
I don't mind. I pick books from any and all sections; if a book sounds good, I will read it; I don't really care where it comes from.

. Do you buy books much or mostly just borrow?
Mostly borrow these days, but only because I'm too broke to buy!

. Have you read any books after seeing them in movie form? Which did you enjoy more?
Erm, it's usually the other way around, actually. But I would like to read Possession, having seen the movie. And I would like never to read Atonement, having endured that movie!

. What about reading the book before there was a movie? How did you feel about the movie? Did you even bother seeing it?
I used to be pretty maniacal about reading the book before seeing the movie. Like, I made sure to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame before the movie came out: and let it be noted that I enjoyed both very much, although they're very different. I've stopped watching the Harry Potter movies because they actually detract from my enjoyment of the books. I watched Twilight after reading the book, because of pure vulgar curiosity. They were almost identical, although I enjoyed the book more because it went faster!

. Do you read any other forms of literature aside from novels? Such as graphic novels, comics, (fan fiction???) etc.?
I love comic books too, although I haven't read any in a long time (see above re: broke); I have a couple of web comics I follow, The Dreamer and Fey Winds, and I will happily read fanfiction so long as it's good: bad or amateurish writing puts me off right away.

. What is a book you want to read, but haven't yet? What intrigues you about it?
I have a list somewhere around here ...

. If you could rewrite the end of one book (or any other part, I suppose), which would you choose? If you were satisfied with every book you read's end, yay.
No... I can't think of anything. If the book is good and well-crafted then the ending is an inextricable part of it, and if the book is bad then changing the ending won't save it.

If you can think of one, name a book that made you:

- cry: HAHAHAHA, just one?! I am a waterworks when I'm reading! The one that sticks most in my mind is Les Miserables, though; Jean Valjean takes like a hundred pages to die, and the whole death scene was so moving, I would be reading with tears streaming down my face, pause to blow my nose, recover a little, start back in, and immediately be bawling again.

- laugh: Anything by P.G. Wodehouse, Patrick O'Brian, or Georgette Heyer is sure to bring the lols.

- think, in a deeper sense than the obvious: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow absolutely short-circuited my brain.

- feel pure happiness: Anything by Patrick O'Brian, but especially The Unknown Shore which is just pure delight from start to finish

- become so addicted you put off everything in order to finish it: The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. Absolutely could not put them down for anything: if the Last Judgment had started before I got to the end, I would have politely asked God if he could wait just a little while longer, until I finished those books!

- die of boredom: If I'm bored, I stop reading

- learn something new: Richard Zacks' The Pirate Hunter was a really excellent book about William Kidd, which contained all kinds of things I hadn't known before!

- squirm with squickiness: Not so much. I avoid Clive Barker's books for just that reason.

- squirm with glee: Yes! What was it..? Something I read recently, but I can't remember what. Although Locke Lamora and Red Seas had me whooping out loud! (Yes, these books are THAT AWESOME.)

- very embarrassed to be reading it: One time I was stuck in an airport without reading material, so I bought the least-likely-to-be-awful book I could find ... which was a vampire romance, in which plot, characterization, and everything else only existed so that the main characters could have lots and lots of sex. I wanted to shrink into my chair, especially as I had a very dignified-looking old lady sitting next to me when we finally got on the plane!

- angry: Idiocy makes me angry, as does sloppiness or laziness. The easiest way to get me ranting and frothing at the mouth is to have badly-researched nautical stuff in your book. TANITH LEE, I'M LOOKING AT YOU! At least take the time to find out the difference between a sheet and a sail; two seconds on Google is all it takes! Tanith Lee's not the only culprit, of course, but her Piratica books got lazier and lazier, until Piratica III (yes, its actual title: see what I mean about laziness?) was just unreadable. Look, if you don't know something, look it up. Research is not optional! (One of the things that filled me with glee about Red Seas Under Red Skies was how good the nautical stuff was! "This man did his research!" I exclaimed in delight. And it has the best and clearest description of some manouevre--tacking, I think--that I've read in any book, even straight-up nautical fiction. THAT IS HOW IT'S DONE!)

Looking back over what I've written, I see it could be taken as a paen to Scott Lynch as much as anything--but yes, guys, he really is that good! Also I find it interesting that most of my favorite authors are women, but most of my favorite books are written by men. I don't know that it's indicative of anything, but it's interesting if you like meaningless statistics!

Packing

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:05:33 GMT

We're getting ready to move out of our current ramshackle apartment, and I don't know what we've accumulated more of in the last two years: books, or dust! *waves featherduster*

Bachelor cooking

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:17:02 GMT

My husband is the chef in our household; it's not that I can't cook, it's just that when I go into the kitchen either flour goes everywhere or things catch on fire--sometimes both! When I was living in Japan, we'd talk on the phone every Saturday morning (his Friday night), usually when he was cooking his supper. He'd say things like, "Oh, yeah, I'm just making something simple: braised beef tips with roasted asparagus and a simple rice pilaf," or what-have-you. "... I had ramen," I would invariably reply. If the household cookery were up to me we'd be eating ramen every night, except for when we had spaghetti or mac-n-cheese.

I do have culinary skills, however! Besides my mean ramen-making abilities, I have the power of bachelor cooking! You know, where you look through the cabinets and find a grand total of three ingredients, none of which seem to go together, and through some magical alchemy turn them into food. (I also make really great scrambled eggs.)

Yesterday was Friday, which means no meat. I had a can of tuna, some leftover rice, and an apple. Yeah, Apple Tuna Fried Rice!

Folks, it was delicious! So much so that I totally recommend it as food, not just crazy bachelor-cooking!

Here's what I did:

Heat sesame oil in a skillet (any oil would work, but sesame adds a nice flavor, which other oils might not)
Fry up the tuna, so it's hot through and a little seared
Add the rice; same business
Add cut-up apple bits; ditto (I used a granny smith, which gave a nice sharp, tart contrast to the tuna and sauce both in taste and texture)
Smother with sauce: I used miso paste, a ton of soy sauce, and a healthy dollop of rooster sauce, because pain is good.
Fry everything a bit longer just to make sure it all comes together
Devour

NOM NOM NOM. Bachelor cooking FTW!

How about you guys? Any awesome ad hoc cooking experiences you'd like to share?

Anniversary

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:36:25 GMT

So today is my anniversary! Eight years ago this evening, my husband and I were married. I had a bunch of thoughts in my head, about marriage in general and marriage to him in particular, but they all went away as soon as I sat down to write, so I'll just say: I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Still. :D

(P.S. I know this song is a couple years old, but I just got the album and cannot stop listening to it. And is it just me or is John Rzeznik starting to look like a cleft-chinned David Bowie?)

omg awesome!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:47:29 GMT

So we just finished watching the final episode of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I want to go right back to the beginning and watch it all over again; it was like a novel that you just can't put down, one that you know you're going to be coming back to again and again.

And now I can't decide: is it better to torture myself by speculating fruitlessly about what might have happened in the future (as it were, haha) if the show hadn't been cancelled, or to torture myself by reading interviews with cast and crew about the same?

(There needs to be Supernatural/TSCC crossover fic! Dean hits on Cameron, and then she punches him through a wall! Sam and John compete for the title of most emo main character! John Winchester and Sarah compete for the title of worst parenting skills! It will be epic!)

How I Spent (My Husband's) Summer Vacation

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:40:00 GMT

So ... I realized I really haven't posted anything since May, and now it is October! The end of May, but still, that's a pretty long while. Long story short, internet time was eating into productivity time, so I basically blocked myself from access to time-waste-y sites except on Sundays. Did it work? Welllll ... I'm not much more disciplined about being productive than I ever was, but at least I've been wasting my time reading books and, er, reading more books, instead of idly browsing dA or playing Robin Hood on Facebook.

So here's what's been going on with me:

Got hooked on Supernatural. Mega-hooked. I haven't been this into a TV show in … ever.* Oh, Sam and Dean, with your tense and fraught brotherly relationship, and your damaged childhoods, and your kick-ass car, and your arsenal, and your mad monster hunting skillz! I don't even care that the show has some of the goofiest most made-up-est ideas about eschatology, theology, angels, demons, etc. It hits all my buttons. And the best part? They're from Kansas. Carry on, wayward sons!

*Firefly comes close, but since then … I haven't really even watched TV. Now I am actually eagerly tuning in every week to see what happens next. That hasn't happened since Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on the air!

Read a ton. (Am now out of books. Anyone have any good recommendations?)

Shopped for agents, and been rejected by all so far. But, never say die! (Not having a synopsis is holding me up; loads of agents require one, and I haven't had time to write one yet.)

Started (re-started?) work on a new (old) story (novel?). (I guess you'd call it a revision/new draft? Except the first draft is about ten years old and dreadful, so it's more of a total reworking. It is hard work!)

Visited the family in Kansas.

Had a birthday. Dyed my hair pink. (It is now a weird orangey-blonde, and way too long.)

Worked on a couple really badass awesome projects that I will be excited to talk about in more detail when the time is right. One of them is called Tin-Star Tex, and it's the brainchild of Benjamin Glendinning. You can find more info, as well as some artwork from the book, at his website Skulljammer.com.

Got rid of my old car, and am now car-less. In Dallas. Which sucks.

Enjoyed a summer vacation with my husband, and am now sad that he's back in school and busier than ever. However we are enjoying Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles S2 together on DVD ... why was this show cancelled? (Not a rhetorical question! It is an excellent show!)

And how is everyone else doing these days?

Napoleon Total War

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:47:56 GMT

I don't play strategy games as a rule, but boy howdy this looks sweet:

www.totalwar.com/

I'm not dead yet!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:10:10 GMT

*waves*

*gets crushed by pile of projects*

Seriously, I realize I haven't posted in ... a while. Where does the time go? I have a "How I Spent My (Husband's) Summer Vacation" post written, which I will post up ... eventually. Behold the awesome power of vagueness. But now, it is time for sleep.

How is everybody?

Birthday!

Sun, 31 May 2009 18:01:00 GMT

I love my birthday. I am not going to lie. Even though I'm now (or will be tomorrow) 31 years old (Gasp! O, the humanity!), with all the attendant what-have-I-done-with-my-life (plenty, thanks, if nothing you win awards for ... yet! bwa ha ha!) angsting, I still love it. I hope when I am 91 years old I will continue to love it. Of course, when I'm 91 I hope to be one of those black-clad cane-wielding autocratic grand dames, you know, like Lady Catherine, only not crazy and mean like she is ... which actually I think will probably make the whole birthday thing more enjoyable, at least for me.

I am further not going to lie, and admit straight-out that one of my favorite things about my birthday is ... presents! (Don't get me wrong, I think the whole package is top-notch. I mean, here you have a built-in reason for your friends and family and all your other loved ones to get together and have fun, so you can have all your favorite people gathered all in one place ... and it's just because you were born! How cool is that? Plus, birthday cake. Or in my case, pie. Because pie is more delicious than cake. Sorry, cake-lovers; it's true.)

So my lovely friends and relations got me some bang-up top-notch super-keen presents this year: coffee from Harrod's! four kinds of tea! The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian! (At last, my collection is complete!) Three kinds of gin ... and one of the kinds has ships on the bottle! And the pinnacle of presents, right up there with the FFX Bahamut action figure and the scale model of HMS Victory ... the Trafalgar tea-pot.

Isn't it gloriously tacky? That's Captains Berry, Cooke and Blackwood there, while their ships engage in combat stupendous on the lid.

My phone can't do it justice, but here is a blurry Lord Nelson, and Captain Hardy:

I know you are all totally jealous of me, because how many other people have Lord Nelson on a teapot? A teapot with little pointy buttresses and bad Victorian painting and gold trim? It is the awesomest thing ever; I love it with unreservedly, with ever fiber of my nerdy soul. I don't love it ironically, or in spite of its badness, I love it because it is so over-the-top.

And how convenient that I also have tea!

Cheerio, everybody! Happy Sunday!

Writer's Block: Space Wars

Wed, 20 May 2009 15:32:01 GMT

Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Serenity, Alien, 2001—there is a long list of movies and TV shows that take place in space. Which is your favorite?

View 501 Answers

It is a no-contest win for Firefly. Somehow that little show managed to pack in everything I love in just the right balance ... adventure, explosions, hitting people in the face, awesome characters, peril, crime. I love the steampunk blend of old west and new tech, I love that the crew is a passel of lovable rogues, I love the washed-out, sepia-toned, lived-in feel, the variety of stories, the cadence of the dialogue ... there is nothing about the show that is not to love. If they were still on the air today, still telling stories about the characters and the ship, I would definitely not be sad.

(I loved the movie less than I loved the show, partly because it seemed like they backpedalled the character development a little, partly because the production design erred more towards blue, cold and space-y than amber, warm and western-y.)

A week ago, I would have said Battlestar Galactica came in second, but that was before we went and saw STAR TREK! Loved the movie (explosions! adventure! hitting people in the face! ... you might be noticing a theme in the things I like by now), and it inspired us to start watching the classic series. Which ... is awesome! Yeah, it's old and the effects are cheesy (one of the alien creatures they discovered was a dog in a costume! A dog! In a costume!), but the stories are suspenseful, the characters great, and the acting pretty good. (There was an episode written by Richard Matheson! Richard "I am Legend" Matheson! How cool is that? It was a good episode, too.) It's also pretty cool to see that the changes they made in the movie ... weren't actually all that far-fetched. Uhura is pretty clearly trying to attach Mr Spock in the old series; that she managed to succeed in the movie is a big "here ya go!" to fans.

Besides, BSG is a thrilling story, but it's got a lot of that post-modern, "grittily realistic" thing going on (i.e., all the characters are jerks, and they spend a lot of time flailing about morality because no one has a moral compass, because no one actually believes in anything, fitting it into the "This Story Would Be Better if the Writers Weren't Atheists" category), which always bothers me. (It also seems like it won't hold up to repeated watchings. I tried to re-watch Season 3 recently, and was just bored and annoyed, so perhaps once the "must! know! what! happens! next!" is satisfied, the story's weaknesses are made plain? It's a theory.)

And ... did I just really blather on for four paragraphs about Shows In Space? Wow. Okay, enough of me: what about you guys?

Star Trek Icons!

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:05:29 GMT

So I made some Star Trek icons, because graphic design is how I express my geeky love for things!

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8	9

10	11	12

13	14	15

16	17	18

19

*coff* The, erm, Kirk/Spock "Make Out!" one ... yeah, it's not that I ship them or anything. It's just whenever I'm watching something, and there's two characters glaring passionately at each other, I always have this urge to yell, "MAKE OUT!" So, erm, yeah. *runs and hides*

Feel free to snag, credit or don't, I don't particularly mind it either way. Also feel free to alter, add your own text, print them out and stick them to your wall ... your choices are limitless, and it's not like I own the rights to these pictures!

Reading Day!

Fri, 15 May 2009 02:48:46 GMT

Having finished the hard laborious time-intensive soul-crushing first phase of a major, major project today (only two weeks behind schedule ... ouch!), tomorrow I am giving myself the day off. Not just a day off ... a Reading Day!

I have Arabella, The Toll-Gate, and Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer, and Sarah MacLean's The Season (just purchased, thanks to a birthday gift card from snitter_writer !) ... all of which delights await me after I finish the current book, The Seven Towers by Patricia Wrede (old-school Wrede, published in 1984! Although, did you know that The Enchanted Chocolate Pot was originally published in 1988? I had no idea until just today, when I happened to see the original cover for the book. Wow!).

Reading day, hooray! I certainly won't finish everything tomorrow, but I intend to make a good dent in the stack, and then back to work on Saturday.

Cheerio, my darlings! Have a happy Friday!

Princess and the Frog trailer

Mon, 11 May 2009 17:36:58 GMT

OMG SQUEE! This looks fantastic--I have to not think about how excited I am for this movie, or I won't be able to stand the 6-month wait still to go!

Watch the trailer here!

Also: Star Trek! You know what I loved about it? Everything! You know what I loved more than that? Spock. And you know what I loved the most? It was not a grim, bleak, horrible, nihilistic death movie--it was fun, it was exciting, and it was hopeful. I love The Dark Knight to little bitty pieces, but watching a summer blockbuster that wasn't shot in unvarying shades of everything sucks was really refreshing.

I think we'll be seeing it in I-MAX this coming weekend!

Now! I needs me some Sylar!Spock icons, stat!

Happy Monday, everyone!

What the Dickens?

Thu, 07 May 2009 02:12:49 GMT

Forget TinyURL. Have DickensURL instead! It turns your boring links into quotations from Charles Dickens!

I tried this LJ address and got, "Professionally he declines and falls, and as a friend he drops into poetry." Here's the link! http://dickensurl.com/a163/Professionally_he_declines_and_falls_and_as_a_friend_he_drops_into_poetry