well behaved women rarely make history

A-AWESOME

IT'S ALREADY OUT. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS.

On the other hand, I was watching it going 'I really hope Lola gets to do more' and she doesn't even appear once. **sulks**

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I have never read or seen the Dragon Ball, and yet when I saw a page about the history of Honolulu on their site (.gov and everything) that mentioned "King Kamehameha I, who conquered Oahu in a decisive battle..." my mind went straight there.

**shakes head** Internet fandom osmosis is no joke.

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I need to stop getting, like actually angry over the shit Allan Ball does to Charlaine Harris's books, but this just stirred up boiling anger that never left me.

Ball said the Vampire King of Mississippi is coming in season three. He provides a contrast to Sophie-Anne, the Vampire Queen of Louisiana (Evan Rachel Wood). “He’s older,” Ball said. “He’s much more mature. He’s much more methodical and grounded. She’s kind of crazy. To me, she’s kind of like Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan, where she has a very short attention span and she’s very, very egomaniacal and very self-obsessed and doesn’t really think about her actions, whereas the Vampire King is very much an adult. He has an agenda. He has things he wants to achieve. I think he’s much more formidable than she is.”

So basically, he took Sophie-Anne's character and gave it to a man. Who is, of course, this being True Blood, 'much more formidable.' And set her up to take a disastrous fall and have 'higher' vampire authorities PO'd at her.

I mean, he spends the entire second season undermining and sidelining Sookie--I'm not even mentioning Calypso being turned into Maryanne--and a fair amount of the first season too, so I'm not surprised, just frustrated all over again.

ALLAN BALL. SOOKIE DOES NOT NEED POWERS TO BE AWESOME. SHOVE OFF.

(Source.)


All I've been doing is complaining lately!

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I'm not sure why Uther being an asshole is supposed to surprise/alarm/set off warning bells for anyone. So he indiscriminately murders his people, but they're shocked if he taxes them? He isn't acting any different than usual, beyond fawning over Sarah Parrish, who is actually kind of awesome.

ETA: Guys, I can't help but think that saying 'Uther is good king except for the whole magic thing!' is like saying, 'he's a good boyfriend except for the bit where he stabs me in the face when I breathe in the vicinity of another man!'

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On Hating Female Characters.

For a while now I’ve been thinking about how many readers seem to hate female characters more than they hate male. Or rather that the same behaviour from a male character is okay but someone inexcusable in a female.

NO KIDDING. I read and enjoyed this post a while back, but a link popped up on my flist, and I returned to it and decided in light of some recent comments I'd read that it needs to be sung from the rooftops.

She also has a very good post here: The Advantages of Being a White Writer Highly recommended.

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My Multi-Cultural class--a class that tries to teach the students to acknowledge/understand/fight racism, sexism, hetereosexism, ableism, classism (and on)--upsets me, badly.

I walk away from every class where I have to interact with my fellow students feeling indefinably sick, with a greasy, twisting knot of anxiety, dissatisfaction and unhappiness in my stomach. I trip over my words. I get upset over the issues and can't express myself properly, especially since my tendency is to shut down and fold inward when upset; they don't even listen to statements the teacher has made five seconds earlier, they're so convinced they're right, why would they listen to me?

I went to this class because I thought it would--I don't know, teach me, be a place for discussion, and I have learned and I'm glad for it, but I just.

I feel so awful and miserable and twisted up in knots almost every class.

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There's plot! There's plot threads coming together by way of answers! There's the strong potential for some actual resolution!

There's not enough Rinali.

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Well, uh.

I made some remark about smug villains/antagonists/anti heroes not being my thing. Then I accidentally watched a clip of Supernatural! Now smug heroes are so far beyond 'not my thing' it's a little alarming.

bleurgh, Dean Winchester, why such a misogynistic sack of shit

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Wow I actually cannot believe Joss Whedon ever had the sheer gall to call himself a feminist. GUESS WHAT. YOU'RE NOT. END OF STORY.

Spoilers within, but they're warned for before they're reached.


I was remembering Nalini Singh's novella in her Angel's Blood series, one about Ashwini and the vampire she hunts on and off. In this, the angel--who is pretty much a carbon copy of Raphael--is treated the way a sane person would treat them. She's creeped out by his come-on, spooked, and hopes to interact with him as little as possible. At the time I didn't put much thought into it, but the only difference I can really come up with between the angel and archangel is that one--the one acknowledged as negative--is black.

Mm. Well.

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I was thinking about white privilege, and racism and all the -isms and the baggage that goes with it. On top of what I have as a white person, even as a girl and a feminist there have been and probably still are sexist views that I've subconsciously absorbed and not yet unearthed or examined.

A while back I was reading Anne Bishop and she made a remark about 'feminine' in her books. The quote is on my profile, I liked it so much, and it goes like this: "....the gist of it being whatever a woman enjoyed wearing was feminine and whatever she didn't enjoy wearing wasn't.""

And I had to reevaluate what I, a girl, thought of as feminine. I mean, what does feminine mean?

1. pertaining to a woman or girl: feminine beauty; feminine dress
....
4. belonging to the female sex; female

(I deleted the two between because, to be frank, they very demonstrably displayed the very cultural manipulation of roles that I'm complaining about.)

And what is our cultural view of 'feminine', especially in regards to clothing? Delicate. Pink. Satin. Lace. Frivolous. And what cultural image does all that feed into? The 'fragile' woman. The one that needs to be protected. She can't run in it, and it sure as hell isn't going to offer her any protection against the world. The one that needs the man to make decisions for her (frivolous, clothes as too important) and, for example, control her money.

So when you're talking about theoreticals, and societal views, and stereotypes and archetypes and tropes, fine. You can use feminine in that manner all you like. But what 'feminine' really means is 'female.'

And we can be whatever we damn well want to be.

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Wow, I'm crossing 'Warehouse 13' off of my viewing list.

Warehouse 13 also treats the idea of history being powerful, dangerous, and relevant today as a crazy, fantastical notion. "Who would think that? Doesn't everyone know that the past is something we tear down and lock away in the attic to make room for the new?" Well, it turns out that not everybody does think that way. Especially people, like indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and other victims of imperialism throughout the world, who had their language and/or history and/or culture and/or lives forcibly removed by colonizing powers. A power like, say, the United States government.

An assessment of the artifacts shown therein.

Twilight vs Quileute legends: Where it points out that despite Meyer stating she was telling the truth, she just appropriated the name and lied her ass off. It describes the actual legends.

Pocahontas. Ohhh, Pocahontas. Too many issues with Disney's story to count, but this one does a pretty good job. And an analysis of the second movie, too. It's like The Other Boleyn Girl for racism.

Here is the Powhatan response to the Pocahontas myth.

We of the Powhatan Nation disagree. The film distorts history beyond recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical accuracy were rejected. Our efforts urging him to reconsider his misguided mission were spurred.

"Pocahontas" was a nickname, meaning "the naughty one" or "spoiled child". Her real name was Matoaka. ....The truth of the matter is that the first time John Smith told the story about this rescue was 17 years after it happened, and it was but one of three reported by the pretentious Smith that he was saved from death by a prominent woman.

Yet in an account Smith wrote after his winter stay with Powhatan's people, he never mentioned such an incident. In fact, the starving adventurer reported he had been kept comfortable and treated in a friendly fashion as an honored guest of Powhatan and Powhatan's brothers. Most scholars think the "Pocahontas incident" would have been highly unlikely, especially since it was part of a longer account used as justification to wage war on Powhatan's Nation.

Euro-Americans must ask themselves why it has been so important to elevate Smith's fibbing to status as a national myth worthy of being recycled again by Disney. Disney even improves upon it by changing Pocahontas from a little girl into a young woman.

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On one hand: very pretty.

On the other: ooh, white men go into space, land on alien planet, either do a full-body 'blueface' or steal a native's body so they can gather intel on natives, and then make war. Oh, and a beautiful ~exotic~ native woman is involved in a starcrossed romance! Oh, and by doing this they 'fix' a disabled person.

I am feeling sour over this.

Especially after reading that this twit:



...is bragging about getting to use a whitewashed film about a Chinese-American martial artist and inventor as his vehicle. Here's what Tommy Zhou should actually look like:



FAIL DETECTED. If anyone's curious, it looks like the entire four-issue comic is online, completely legit at Drunkduck.com

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Y HALO THERE

Halloween was fun. I went trick or treating with three largely obnoxious boys, one of whom actually minded his behavior when asked to, and brought home about a truckload of candy. I wore fabulous facepaint--my mother drew it on--and wore a black velvet cape, so.

Fun.

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Worst Sexy Halloween Costumes

urgh urgh urgh


And the litany of people blaming a fifteen year old girl for being brutally assaulted while intoxicated has begun. I honestly didn't expect it in this particular case, which makes me too fucking stupid and idealistic for words.

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Oh good god.

The Demise of Off Our Backs

An examination--brief--of classism and racism--extensive--within a 'radical' feminist organization. The racism is awe inspiring to behold, fountaining up in a mess of hot, frothing entitlement, malice and prejudice.

Basically, a WOC calls the racist white women on their racism, and one explodes in messy rage, spiteful, appalling and horrifically racist and sexist language, and apparently is now seeking to bring charges against her. (Excerpts in the first link.)

I'm ashamed to know they call themselves feminists.

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One of--actually, a couple of--my female classmates today informed me that sexist romance novels were actually sexist against men, because they're portrayed as thinking with their dick.

Oh, yeah. Being portrayed as stronger, smarter, more capable, more important, more justified in all things and more deserving--and hey, not being portrayed as if only one of your gender (the one the man is interested in) is not evil!--and completely essential to any woman's happiness or feeling of completion in her life is so sexist! Gee, thanks for educating little ol' me.

(And yes, I know that--presumably--not all romance novels are that bad. But a frighteningly high percentage of them are jaw droppingly sexist.)

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A fifteen year old girl was sent to the hospital in critical condition after being gang-raped for two and a half hours. Fifteen people stood around, watched, and did nothing. Some joined in. She was only found--her life was only saved--because someone heard people bragging about it.

"As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated," Gagan said.....The victim was found unconscious and "brutally assaulted" under a bench shortly before midnight Saturday, after police received a call from someone in the area who had overheard people at the assault scene "reminiscing about the incident."

...."This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it," Gagan said. "It was like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I can't believe not one person felt compelled to help her."

I don't have any commentary for this. I'm just full of pure hatred; rage and terror and concern.

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People are so astonishingly loath to admit their own culpability, even in an environment as constructive and undemanding as a classroom. (I'm sure I've suffered a kind of that reluctance in the past.) Are they simply so attached to their lofty perception of themselves as just and correct? The sheer ridiculous effrontery of a privileged person informing the oppressed that they are being 'over sensitive' if they note prejudice is almost hard to grasp. I'm left floundering as to how to speak to these people.

Can you really argue with someone who doesn't recognize logic?

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Guys, Max spent ten years on the run, completely alone, constantly fighting life-or-death battles, constantly undercover, becoming an extremely competent cat burglar to provide for herself and defeating highly trained operatives at every turn to keep herself free.

Alec spends the same amount of time safely locked away, being brainwashed and doing drills.

What factor of this--besides misogyny--can even remotely be interpreted to mean 'oh yeah, he is totally and obviously so much better than her!' You know, besides one throwaway comment from a biased source whose ass Max kicks in a later episode.


To think that, after spending a great deal of time immersed in this fandom, I managed to emerge largely intact as a feminist before I even knew what a feminist was. I must have been raised right.

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I've never even seen Dexter, and I laughed out loud.

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I am so unbelievably tired. I've been getting more sleep, not less! Body, what is up with this!

Also, I need to get out more, or all the stuff I've been reading and hearing about, the sheer ugliness of the things humans will do and say to each other, is going to knot and warp inside me and I'll shrivel and implode.

Emotionally, anyway.

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I forgot how much I loved Anita Blake back in the day.

Back when she was a solid stone-cold badass, a professional and an Executioner who had no patience for enemies, squeamishness that endangered others, or ridiculous ~sex appeal~ vampires in general. The woman who promised she'd kill anyone who hurt her friends and never, ever bluffed. The woman who loved stuffed penguins, was a little too sarcastic for any hope of social graces, and was actually pretty well adjusted, all things considered. Confident, dangerous, with close and badass female friends and a love interest that knew he was less dangerous than her and didn't really mind.

Back when she honestly had no patience with overdressed vampires, and the author actually understood the meaning of consent and textually supported her, 'just 'cause I think you're hot doesn't mean I actually want you' stance. Because seriously? After so many romance novels with their 'if you find him attractive you're meant to be no matter how much of an ass he is!', that was really good to read.

I have most of her books right up to the brink and just a little over where L.K.Hamilton really goes downhill (her eyeroll worthy character derailment of Richard when she broke up with the man he was based off of started long before the full Shark Jumping) and nostalgia makes me sad. It's one thing to know a writer isn't going to be able to write more of a series you love, and an entirely different thing to know she's still writing them, but they have no actual resemblance to the ones I loved.

I've never found another female character that I love quite as much as Anita in the early days, nor any who were so convincingly ruthless, lethal and human at the same time.

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In further evidence that I am possibly the most immature newly-minted ~Adult~ ever, I cannot actually manage to say Sooric--even in my head--without stretching out the double vowel for, like, five seconds. I don't know! I can't stop! I don't know whether it's the softer consonent after the 'oooo' or just how hilariously awful the amalgam of names is, I cannot stop. I have the sense of humour of a five year old.

What spurred this little segue was getting a review--a quite nice one, actually--complimenting me on a story I'd written that apparently featured the pairing 'Bolivia.'

...what? For starters, the man in the pairing they refer to has a name starting with P. There are three men in the canon just off the top of my head with last names that start with B. THIS IS A LITTLE TOO UNSPECIFIC FOR MY TASTES. I mean, normally they're sort of ridiculous but on an unmistakeable level, if you know what I mean.


The only potential pairing names I can come up of in Blood Ties fandom sound sort of like STDs to me. If you know of any actual ones--sounding like an STD or not--please do not share.

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You know, I love Vicki, but I really, really do not like Mike. His condescension, patronization--accusing her of lying--controlling habits and domineering attitude is just appalling.

Refusing to give her the keys to her office back? When this was obviously a repetition of her telling him she didn't want him to have them? I was staring open mouthed at the screen in horror. Abusing police resources on the basis of nothing more than jealousy? I don't care that he was right, he was way out of line. And telling her she has 'anger issues' because she doesn't roll over and play nice whenever he want to be a possessive prick?

God, I loathe him.

ETA: Also? He just lied to her face.

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Marjorie M. Liu on Roman Polanski: Forgive me (again) while I take a moment…

I've posted a barrage of posts on this issue, but this one was especially appreciated by me. Because people are actually saying, 'we shouldn't charge him because the victim has forgiven him!' Disregarding the fact that maybe she just doesn't want to give him an opportunity to make her life hellish all over again. And I would like this to be trumpeted from the rooftops:

Roman Polanski raped a child. Not if, maybe, or possibly—he did it. He did it, he did it, he did it. And then, like the coward son of a bitch he is, he fled the authorities.

Now, most people would say, “Wow, that’s horrific and unspeakable, and he should be punished for his crime. Not just because he hurt a young girl, but because he might do it again.“

Carolyn Jewel: Maybe you'll want to skip this post. Or not. Your Choice

I really thought we'd moved past the days when we blamed women for the violence committed against them. I really did. I didn't think anyone in America today could stand up and blame a 13 year old girl for the actions of a 43 year old man who gave her alcohol and drugs before he got around to having sex with her -- because, damn, she kept saying no!

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I tried watching Sanctuary a while back, and just couldn't get through it.

For starters, the main character was insufferable. He was a doctor, and I began the episode pitying and vaguely interested in him, and ended it hating him passionately. He's an asshole. His first response to learning there are endangered supernatural species out there is to go, "they could be dangerous? WHY HAVEN'T YOU KILLED THEM!" repeatedly. He dramatically flings himself against a wall in apparent revulsion and shock when a man with slightly odd eyes and bone structure enters the room, and continues with this repulsive attitude throughout the entire goddamn episode. I hate him so much it isn't even funny.

If he was in an episode of Dark Angel, Max would have gotten to punch him out at the very least. I take a deeply nasty pleasure in imagining his reaction to Joshua.

I'd heard so many good things about Amanda Tapping that I really wanted to like her character; no such luck. Her response to being asked, 'there are people out there that could be potentially dangerous to us? WHY HAVEN'T YOU KILLED THEM" is not, for example, "because we don't have a right to murder people because they might pose us harm", it's "I can study them and learn stuff." So basically: they're useful to me. I ended the episode loathing her, too. Oh, and aforementioned slightly odd looking man is the only supernatural creature--besides a sparkly fairy off in the distance--we see not in cages or killing people, and he was so desperately grateful to Amanda Tapping that he hung around until she honoured him with a menial job of serving her. She reminded me of a more PR friendly version of Renfro, but same basic blueprint.

Gee, thanks. I just couldn't get past the first episode.

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I just realized I had the anonymous commenting allowed option set to off on my writing journal. Which meant that when I invited people to anonymously comment, I wasn't letting them. Er. **shifty eyes** Oops.

Back at school we are. I finished watching Fringe and am contemplating watching season two as it goes--I never finished the most recent episode, so it seems as good a time as any for a cutoff. Do I want to wait until I can buy the season two DVD, or spoil myself?

In other news, I picked up watching Mistresses, a British TV show about four women, because it has Anna Torv in it. Not, sadly, as one of the main cast, but as a fairly central character; she plays one of the womens' engaged love interest whilst looking like this, so needless to say I was hooked. The show itself is good, with good characters, but I have an adultery squick and probably will not watch beyond the point at which she exits the show.

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Meeting the Beast: Ginger Snaps and Feminist Werewolves

That is--ultimately--the real reason I never saw it, and am more and more frustrated with supernatural movies starring girls in any way. Just stop it, okay? I really want us to be claw our way past the eternal 'female sexuality/power is dangerous and evil and we must hammer this home with a thousand ham handed metaphors.'


In other news--the second-to-last Fringe episode was so fucking satisfying. I don't even have the words. Like, normally we're very quiet watcher in our house but there were some shouts of triumph. I mean, when I saw who picked up the phone I hoped it would happen, but I didn't really expect it to. And it did! &hearts &hearts &hearts Fringe!

...Olivia needs a hug. And is a badass.

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AHAHAHAHA YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING

THEY ACTUALLY CALL IT SOORIC

WHAT

SOOOOOOORIC

OH MY GOD I'M DYING OF LAUGHTER

IT'S SO MUCH WORSE THAN SUSPIAN. STOP THE SHIP NAMES FOR GOD'S SAKE

(For the life of me I can't figure out whether it's better or worse than 'Chair.')

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Last night was actually kind of horrific.

I was in too much pain to sleep, to much pain to read--it didn't help if I sat up, stood, or laid down. There were compresses, witch hazel, aloe and warm baths applied. There was a brief period in the wee hours of the morning in which I, crazed by lack of sleep, woke my mother up and spilled a bit of hysteria all over her after spending an appalling amount of time screaming into my pillows in sheer pain and frustration.

Then I soaked again (for, like, the fourth time) and went and read fandom_wank out in the living room, contorted into the position which caused me the least pain. The pain subsided enough to allow sleep at about 3:26 in the morning.

Fun times, folks.

It's been months since I read fandom_wank, actually, and I do it very rarely and usually for a relatively short period of time before I lose interest, but it's certainly distracting.

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There is some definite accuracy going on here.

I'm going as a witch this Halloween. I've got a cape and a witch's hat, and I'll be wearing black pants and shirt and boots, and it shall be decidedly unsexy, thank you very much. Witches are of a practical sort; they can't be out hexing and flying on brooms if they've got a bad case of the flu, can they?

I'll have to recruit somebody for some theatrical makeup for the proper Halloween spirit.


In other news, I've had a health issue recently that is excruciatingly painful. Luckily the infection seems to be going away, but the doctor's office is not picking up the phone, and the last time I went to the ER (for this same issue) the doctor actually caused the infection.

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Subject: Olivia Dunham, FBI.

I've never done a picspam before, so this challenge was easy, and for it I picked my favorite character, Olivia Dunham from the TV show Fringe.

I started watching it recently on the weight of several recommendations, finally putting it on our netflix list when we had nothing else to watch, as an afterthought. And within one episode, I was in love. It's a little gruesome for me--I'm fine with gore and forensics and horror on its own, but I hate watching it happen to the people--but I love pretty much all of the characters, and I desperately adore the female lead and fiercely enjoy each episode's mystery and its always satisfying conclusion even inside the greater story arc.

So I give you my favorite thing about this show:



( There are a lot of reasons I love her... )

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Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced

I would recommend this to men or women. This is a beautiful little piece, and while many of the comments are made of win, there are a few that are rage inducing.


You know what? THIS. IS. NOT. OUR. FUCKING. PROBLEM. You do not goddamn well get to tell your victim, the victim of your privilege, to 'stop living in fear' and to 'stand up for yourself instead of being so polite'. You do not get to tell other women that because you have been naive and sheltered enough to think that walking the streets alone at night is as safe as visiting your grandfather, they don't get to be careful of their safety and have a healthy wariness of men.

And oh my god, you do NOT FUCKING GET to tell a woman that being wary of a privileged section of the population that statistically--overwhelmingly statistically--assaults, violates and takes advantage of her is on the same level as racism.

Fuck you, a thousand times over. This is what women and girls grow up learning. This is not 'living in fear' and if women do live in fear you have no fucking right to criticize them for it. This is a sane reaction to the insanity the world likes to visit upon us in the form of rape, assault, sexism, abuse.

I linked to deeply intelligent articles about this issue a while back. I can't be coherent right now. It's beyond me.

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My fellow students in Multicultural class are extremely frustrating. One boy nearly pitched a fit over the idea that because he was born white, he was part of a racist system. The teacher pointed out that it was obvious that people of colour are affected by it by simple dint of birthright, but the boy was utterly determined to nonsensically deny anything that might give him any sense of responsibility or accountability. Two women in the space of moments made staggeringly sexist remarks that left me almost trembling with anger.

Give me a goddamn break.

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This is exquisitely well made, in all features; it's so beautiful I would tell people who don't know the fandom or don't intend to know the fandom to watch, because it is just that lovely, and poignant, and intense. Morgana in all her glory.

Origin and download link here, by la_esmeralda_.

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How much did I love Bound?

A WHOLE GODDAMN LOT.

I always knew Olivia was a solid stone-cold badass, but I love seeing her in action. It makes me happy in a way it may not make entirely healthy-minded people happy, I dunno. She's so strong, and vulnerable, and fierce and intelligent and real--flawed and unpredictable and oh my god how gorgeous is Anna Torv? Really fucking gorgeous. She has the most beautiful smile I've ever seen, and I wish Olivia had reason to smile more often, I really do. I want to punch John Scott again and again, lying bastard.

After hating Loeb for episode after episode, I actually felt almost sorry for him at the end of Bound. I am an indecisive sucker.

And that's why I love Peter and Olivia. Because he's always going to have her back, and she's going to have his, and they kick ass together, and she relaxes enough to give him--repeatedly--that gorgeous, delighted, thousand-watt smile while showing him card tricks over off duty drinks. Because he teases her and catches her and trades favours with intimidating Chess Mistresses for her, and she smirks at him and knows he's there when she needs him and guns down the people that hurt him.

And because they're so fucking pretty together!

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Little House on the Prairie: An in-depth, concise summary of all the many reasons that book should never be given to children.

I never read it. And boy, after reading this? I'm glad I never read it. Jesus. I'm pretty offended that it's still on the shelves in its untouched format.

I would not want my child to read Little House on the Prairie. I would shield him from the slights she slings upon his ancestors. They appear in her book only as beggars and thieves, and she adds injury to insult by comparing the Osages—who turned Thomas Jefferson’s head with their dignity and grace—to reptiles, to garbage or scum (depending on the definition of the word she actually uses). Mrs. Wilder assigns them descriptive adjectives that connote barbarism, brutality, and bloodthirstiness, and makes much ado about their odor. But she makes light of their obvious plight: In one passage, she describes almost mockingly the skeletal figures of two Osages who are fed cornbread by Ma, the eating noises they make and the pitiful sight of them stooping to eat specks of food they spot on the floor.

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Someone told me The Vampire Diaries was not at all changed to be like Twilight, omg. For anyone on my flist who thought about watching it, I thought I'd post my reply and save them the time.

Elena is now brunette, angst-ridden, only looks forward to the day because of a boy, for god's sake, and has an 'immature' mother figure, as well as about as much personality as Bella. Stefan is now white, angst ridden, 'can't stay away from her', and is a 'redeemed' vampire, not to mention creepy. 'I have to know her? I couldn't resist?' Oh and now he ~can't resist her blood~, Twilight style. He stalks her, Twilight style! As opposed to the Italian gentleman and the charistmatic HBIC they were in the books? Yes. They're Twilight clones. They've stripped away all personality from her female friends and erased half of them, but that might just be a TV thing rather than a Twilight thing.

Oh, and apparently now it's his story, rather than hers.

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VAGINA FEST: ROUND TWO

Only one Fringe prompt so far! **cries** I love this show too much to be believed.

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I uploaded an unwarranted amount of NaNoWriMo icons today. I think I had something else to say, but it is very clearly my bedtime, and I have forgotten it. Quelle tragédie.

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Blood Ties and Fringe, season one for both, arrived yesterday, two days ahead of schedule! I watched it with my father last night, shamelessly neglecting homework. **hides head in shame** To add to that, it is so hard to get up in the morning now that it's chilly and I wake up curled in a lovely cocoon of soft blankets and warmth. And a cat sleeping on my head, but I've gotten used to it. Although you should see the looks I get when I get up and he slides off. I leapt out of bed in a panic twice this morning afraid that I'd overslept, and Simba gave me quite the evil eye each time.

Breaking news, breaking news: Angel Coulby is the most beautiful woman in the world. No joke, swear to god. There was a post on LJ (member-locked or I'd link) and I just about died.


I actually caught a Heroes episode out of boredom the other day. Peter is still terribly uninteresting and the show's pet, all the woman are blonde except for the unpleasant ones (though my reaction to the newest is because of my huge squick for invaded-privacy), Claire is seriously, I am sorry, too foolish for words. I am, however, fascinated by the show's newest female character, a deaf woman who works in a police station. The actress is incredibly expressive. The only character who actually put on a performance worth watching.

They haven't killed Sylar yet? For god's sake, people! They can slaughter women left and right, but can't knock off this irredeemable piece of scum?

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For a little while there, my little brother was missing.

He's about ten and he's been walking home, and he was a whole half-hour late. Mom and I went looking for him, and long story short he'd gotten lost, found the way again and was apparently stopping every few steps to read his comic books.

I feel incredibly wrung out, physically and emotionally. Normally we have a pretty antagonistic relationship, but this was just...I didn't even know how scared I was until I kind of started crying, because seriously--

Just. I'm never having children. I wouldn't survive the experience.

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This morning it was terribly chilly, wore long sleeved shirts and big fluffy-inside boots, flannel pants and thick socks.

This afternoon it was a bright, cloudless day with a blazing sun. I trudged home, almost the whole trip uphill, carting a bag full to the brim of textbooks and notebooks.

**flopped out drinking lemonade** Ah, the wonders of a ceiling fan...

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Okay, I have to ask: can anyone else hear it when the TV turns on?

We have a TV, not flatscreen, not connected to any channels/cable/what-have-you, and I've always been able to hear it when it turns on, and it drives me insane. This high, piercing, not-quite-aural note that goes right through my temples. Normally it's just sort of there, and vaguely off/unpleasant and fairly easily drowned out by the movie's noise, but sometimes--especially when I'm tired or not feeling well--it gives me a terrible headache.

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Why yes, Gaius, drugging, lying to and manipulating a young woman without pity or concern for her breaking sanity sure is 'taking good care of her!' You piece of scum.

Merlin! Does not know the meaning of subtle! And still runs everywhere. And is a total dumbass in so many ways.

( spoilers, obv. )

I just spent all day moving furniture, vigorously and all by my lonesome. My bed, my bookshelf, and my desk. I feel very exerted.

Oh god, I turned around after finally getting the desk into place and nearly burst into tears. Every horizontal, vaguely horizontal and potentially horizontal surface was covered in debris. I can hardly believe I actually managed to clear pretty much all of it away.

Maybe I'll even share some photos. Also, I can now sit at my desk again! Before I had to do all my laptopping on the bed.

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So, remember that book by Jory Strong? The one that I read because I'd gotten its sequel for free? Yeah, that one. Oh my god, the sequel is even worse.

Spider-Touched: Set in the same world, a post-apocalyptic world where supernatural beings have risen to prominence, countered by a pretty stereotypical evil church in power. The main character is a thief named Arana, traveling with two other thieves, men who are lovers and adopted her. Naturally 'teh gays' die immediately. She's pretty badass; she has an angsty past concerning her family, revealed throughout the book, but isn't inclined to dwell on it, being more inclined to being tough, ruthless and intelligent as she pursues vengeance and freedom. She ends up being captured, escaping, and rescuing the hero when she has a vision of him imprisoned. Good start, right? She's pretty awesome, and I was full on liking the book when the hero and heroine were separate.

The good trend does not linger.

First of all: can you stop talking about his sexual organs? Please? He has the same problem as the hero for Ghostland, in that whenever he thinks about the heroine--before he's even met her face to face--he gets hard. Like, it's actually progressed to a comical stage, though I'm pretty sure the author is convinced that it's hot. Sexual attraction doesn't really work that way--which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't use it as a substitute for actual character interaction. She says her characters are in love, but they never do anything but have sex. No conversation, no learning about each other--the hero threatens the heroine every time she does anything of her own volition, but that's about it. Oh wait, there's some hilarious porn-talk. But other than that, nada.

And the whole bit where he threatens her whenever she does anything he hasn't told her to, or does something he tells her not to, or wants to keep something private--seriously. THREATENS HER--is just so, so awful, and even worse in this one. And the book expects us to find it oh-so-hot.

Oh, and he's an angel. He's actually like several prominent characters in Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh, only much worse--more like Dmitri, actually, whom I hated--which in retrospect makes the fact that I considered them defensible both embarrassing and worrying.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with this book, since I'm not finishing it and don't particularly want to keep it. I'd donate it to the library, but I'd like to refrain from exposing anyone else to this if at all possible.

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The Dos and Don'ts of Being a Good Ally (Broader than Lambda, and more important than I can stress.)

fiction_theory: That's the problem with slacktivism, with the idea that you can sit back, make some nice nifty posts, put up a banner or two on your social networking pages, and suddenly you're as invested in the struggle as someone who lives it every day.

That's the difference between real allies and faux-allies. Real allies want justice. Faux-allies want cookies and fringe benefits and nifty buttons. They want quick, cheap rewards. Thus, faux allies get upset when they're told that the cookies are reserved for those who have gone hungry for decades, not for those who haven't missed a meal in their lives. Real allies just want to see people get fed so nobody goes hungry again.

kaigou: In which the dog invents a new term

Pop quiz! Name the moron who made this statement!

“I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan.”

If you answered "Jackson Rathbone," you get a cookie! And thus, I hereby propose:

rathbone /ˈræθboʊn/ [rath-bohn] v.
1. To appropriate or fake membership in a minority group, based on a belief that such appropriation requires little effort to be sufficiently convincing: She thinks hair dye's all it takes to rathbone it.
2. To hoodwink, or be hoodwinked by, faked membership in a minority group: He totally rathboned the casting director.

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I would like to recommend this fic for ever and ever; I have read it many times over many years and each time I love it more than the last.

Lord I'm Sorry: (Ishida/Orihime, but mostly Orihime's wonderful flavor of crazy) “Today,” Orihime announced during breakfast, beaming over her whipped-cream-bacon-sandwich, “we’re going to discuss how Mommy and Daddy fell in love and made a baby.”

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Whenever someone criticizes a series by saying the protagonists of the series aren't evil enough, I sort of want to shake them vigorously until some glimmer of sense falls in go; "that word--I do not think it means what you think it means."

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