| This May Seem Kind Of Random.... |
[20 Jul 2008|01:49am] |
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But does anyone have or know where I could find a good icon of Claire and Mr Bennat from season one of Heroes?
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| Drive Until You Lose The Road |
[20 Jul 2008|01:31am] |
Okay, let's make this quick and dirty:
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| movie: 27 Dresses |
[20 Jul 2008|03:28am] |
I don't watch romantic comedies very often. How often? Well, I'm sure that, between How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and 27 Dresses, I watched one (willingly, not by other people having it on and my not being able to escape) that wasn't a classic or a rewatch, and didn't have magic and/or period costumes, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Too often, they seem to rely on two people who don't like each other always being stuck with each other and sniping, only to have them randomly declare their love at the end. That, or raunchy/poor mannered/"funny" guy bring the stiff/wallflower woman out of her shell, and we aren't meant to notice what a jerk he is. Plus, they tend to be really big on the idea that humiliating characters and comedy are one and the same.
I'm not really sure why 27 Dresses appealed to me. In case anyone doesn't know, it's about a woman named Jane who's been a bridesmaid 27 times. She's incapable of saying no, or really of asserting herself in any way, and always does what people want. Even to the point of running everything in her boss's life while he doesn't notice she's in love with him, and then standing aside when her sister falls for him. In completely honesty, while there's nothing wrong with him, the guy is as interesting as dirt. More interesting is Kevin, a magazine writer who writes articles about weddings, but who doesn't believe in love and marriage. Jane, who firmly believes in love and marriage, finally finds something to assert herself against. Things go the way they usually do.
Honestly, I think half my interest was in seeing James Marsden finally get the girl with no chance of her pining after someone else. Sure, Superman is Superman and Hugh Jackman makes Wolverine about 1000 times more interesting than he is in the comics, but it's kind of hard to watch Superman Returns and the X-Men movies and believe that the women would be pining after them when they could have his characters. Catherine Heigl is one of those actresses I'm always positive I like, but I can never think of anything I've seen her in.
In all honesty, it's almost impossible to believe that Jane is single without it being by choice, but it works. Jane and Kevin are both easily likable, the dialogue is pretty good, and Heigl and Marsden have good chemistry. I was also very amused by Jane's Closet of Shame, and the fact that the dresses were blatantly an excuse for wardrobe to dress Heigl up in all sorts of outfits.
It's mostly just a normal, if good, romantic comedy, but it does make the romance be the spring that makes Jane step out of her self-assigned role and take charge of her life, and she asserts herself because she's tired of it all, not just because the cute guy told her to. Because of this, some scenes that would normally result in character humiliation aren't, as they're her finally sticking up for herself, if not always in the best way possible.
I admit, part of why I like it is because I went in expecting nothing more than likable fluff with pretty people, and that's what I got.
In conclusion, I feel compelled to mention that Kevin is practically a male version of Kate Hudson's character in 10 Days. They should bond about their desire to write about important issues and such while stuck writing for trend magazines and departments.
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| *jiggles with impatience* |
[19 Jul 2008|08:54pm] |
COME ON FANDOM, SOMEBODY UPLOAD THE AVATAR FINALE!
In other news, I realized how I believe Tsunade would react to Kakashi/Sakura.
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[19 Jul 2008|07:20pm] |
Can anyone give me their opinions on any of the following? Some Amazon has recced to me (but then, it also put every Twilight book in my Gold Box today...) some were in lists. A few I saw in the bookstore but wasn't sure about. Some are recs where I forgot who recced them and what they said. Most are YA fantasy.
Of course, most people won't even see it for a couple hours, and half the f-list is busy liveblogging the Avatar finale...
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| High Wizardry by Diane Duane |
[19 Jul 2008|06:19pm] |
In general, this book seems to be the least popular of Duane’s Young Wizards series. In some ways, I can understand that. Not only is the main character, Dairine, smarter and more powerful than the main characters of the series, but she comes into her powers more quickly, gets a solo adventure, a different type of magic, etc. Despite this, I still liked it, and Dairine.
While Dairine already had Sooper Speshul written all over her before, but…but…she’s a compulsive reader obsessed with knowing as much as possible! Who thinks the only way to keep up with the world is to know as much as she can! I can’t help but like her! Granted, she’s more than a bit of a know-it-all. But then again, she’s twelve.
But then there’s the form her Ordeal takes. Now, computers and I don’t get along. Or rather, they don’t like me. Unless you’re a computer geek, I think reading books focusing on computers or computer-based magic is either going to draw you in because they’re already strange and mysterious as it is, or repel you out of boredom or confusion. It can go wither way for me. On the one hand, when Dairine knew what she was doing, I was lost. However, when she was trying to figure things out, I was happy I wasn’t the only one scrambling, and trying to figure them out with her.
I’m not sure how I feel about how powerful she is, though. On the one hand, I want to sigh and say that having someone hopping to other planets and galaxies and around black holes and such is just too much. I don’t really think it’s a problem with Dairine being too powerful, though, but of everyone being too powerful. Kit and Nita visited and alternate dimension and can change into sea life. That was already pretty powerful. However, in Deep Wizardry, a huge deal was made about one brief jaunt to the moon. Here, they talk about the moon like it’s where they go to chat and think. It’s like their tree house. A little much power floating around in general, IMO. It just stands out more with Dairine.
This is probably one of the most obviously YMMV books I’ve read, at least recently, but I liked it, though not as much as So You Want To Be A Wizard?
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| Meme time |
[18 Jun 2008|06:40pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 cheerful |
] |
| [ |
music |
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saiyuki requiem movie |
] |
Ask me a question about each or any of the following
1)Friends
2)Sex
3)Music
4)Drugs
5)Love
6)Live journal
Borrow from hollow strife copied from crytojo^___~
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| Yurara Vol 3-5 |
[19 Jul 2008|04:10pm] |
You know, there’s a reason I try to wait until shoujo series have several volumes out before I get into them most of the time. In general, I am keeping an eye out for the following:
1) Endless “one wants sex but the other doesn’t” back and forth.
2) Series starts focusing primarily on the guy’s angst while the girl worries about him and is supportive.
3) Series starts being an endless love triangle and focusing more about the guys fighting over her and her being “torn” between them than anything else.
4) Friends/siblings fall for the same girl and start angsting about hurting their buddy, and then bond over how they won’t let their feelings for her come between their friendship and how they’ll be friends no matter what happens, or they try to bury their feelings and step aside for their friend.
Though there are exceptions, these things usually throw me out of a series fast, and often, I drop a series as soon as I see it coming, no matter how much I’m enjoying it otherwise. I’d rather preserve my kind feelings than have them tarnished by overall annoyance. #1 just annoys me and makes me wants to tell them to shut up, do it or don’t do it, and move on to more interesting things. #2-4 effectively reduced the girl to a prize and/or object of contention in order to emphasize how wonderful the guy and relationships between guys are. I’m sorry, but fiction and fandom have been telling me for years all about how guys and relationships between guys are better and more interesting than girls and relationships between girls. I don’t need something supposedly for and about girls doing the same.
From the basic setup, Yurara had the makings to make me go “nothank you.” Let’s see…girl who sees ghosts has a guardian spirit, meets two boys who can exorcise ghosts. Makings of Love Triangle With Friends written in huge block letters. And I’m not a fan of love triangles in general. Normally, I probably wouldn’t even have picked it up. It was, however, by Chika Shiomi, who had already given me 2 manga centered around strong (by almost any limited definition you to apply to the word) heroines with stories almost completely centered around them, and both were most definitely Heroines, not Main Characters. I could already tell in the first volume that I wouldn’t like it as much as the other two…essentially your normal shoujo with a wallflower girl who gets the attention of the two cute guys when she goes to school, only with magic. But at least Yurara herself had the markings of a spine from the start, and her guardian spirit was more in line with the kind of heroine I expected from Shiomi. Unfortunately, it did still give the guys most of the action, did do the love triangle route, and did have most of the last three volumes revolve around the guys and their angst and Yurara being torn.
Now, someone license more Chika Shiomi manga. Preferably of the “girls who kick butt” variety, not the “high school love triangle” one.
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| random bits |
[19 Jul 2008|02:09pm] |
1. Waldenbooks did not have Elizabeth Bear's Ink & Steel when I went in armed with a coupon today. They failed me. Furthermore, while their main computer system showed books 1, 2 and 4 of Promethan Age, I&S wasn't listed under her name or the proper title. So he looked it up online and got the ISBN and then found it for me and it brought it up properly and is ordered, but, SHEESH!
2. Boy I Have No Adjectives For has officially quit. I am now ALL ALONE on Saturdays unless one of the other Boys comes in for overtime or to make-up hours. Also, I was ALL ALONE for 6 hours yesterday.
3. Also, work can get busy again. Megan wants overtime.
4. Now that it's over: Dr. Horrible: Will I like it, or will it make me mad?
5. I still haven't seen any of s3(please don't spoil me any more than I have been), but the massive fandom divide on the f-list over last night's Avatar episode amuses me. I guess because of what the divide seems to be over.
6. Anyone want to recommend mysteries, YA or fantasy set circa regency era-WW 2(yeah, broad time period, there)? Not specifically limited to England. It seems to be what I'm looking for the most, lately.
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[18 Jun 2008|01:46pm] |
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mood |
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cheerful |
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music |
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saiyuki requie movie |
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I just recieve my saiyuki movies requiem and kibou no zaika i'm a happy camper now i'm just waiting on volume 8 for the saiyuki book.
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| Well, Tonight's Evening Of Entertainmeant Left Me On The Floor Screaming, "IS THERE NO GOD?" |
[18 Jul 2008|11:06pm] |
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music |
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trouble - cat stevens |
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Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog:
Ember Island Players:
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| ooooooo! |
[19 Jul 2008|12:28am] |
I came home tonight and there were new, much brighter lightbulbs outside the buildings, lighting the parking lot.
The girl who gets home from work after midnight very, very, very much approves of being able to see the parking lot and stairs.
She is, however, mildly concerned about that whole "sleep" thing, as some of the light was also making it a lot easier to find the lightswitch when she got home...
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