Dulcissime

Be forewarned, there are lots of spoilers under the cut.

( STAR WARS SPOILERS UNDER HERE. )

Many things! In bullet points!

-- Mainly, I worked a bunch. It took me 4 hours to pack orders on Saturday. So many steps, omg. I also did some pearl knotting work, ordered supplies, and did preliminary work on custom orders.

-- Saw ParaNorman. Full disclosure: I tend not to be too into animated films. I don't think they're inferior or childish by any means, but they just don't often grab me like live-action films do. Anyway, I loved ParaNorman. I think it should be required viewing for all schoolkids AND their parents. Parable-ness aside, the animation was... interesting. Definitely a gorgeous film, but in a lot of ways reminiscent of old-school stop-motion, even though it had a distinctly new-school Coraline stop-motion vibe. Anywhoo, it was a good movie.

(I was glad that Laika didn't end up making a Tim Burton-esque film, considering the horror elements. I mean, I like Tim Burton and all, but his last five years of movies have been so tired and repetitive, both in terms of aesthetic and theme, to the point where he's treading water and not making any new headway. I have no desire to see Frankenweenie because it looks SO stereotypically Burtonesque.)

-- Went on a mini shopping spree. It's been a while since I had any fun money, so I did splurge a little bit for myself. I took advantage of the $5 for $15 antibacterial soap sale at Bath & Body Works (Warm Apple Cider smells amaaaaazing) and picked up some Autumn Leaves oil from Yankee along with a handful of Pumpkin Apple votives. I now have a handful of home oils (including Slatkin & Co's Leaves, Cider Lane, and Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, plus BPAL's Samhain is WONDERFUL as a home oil) that I use to re-up scent in my wax tart burner... it's like getting two tarts for the price of one. Picked out a few nail polishes at Ulta... their house brand's Sun Of A Gun (a non-fluorescent orange creme, the closest I could find to a pumpkin spice in a creme finish), Shag by Butter London (a bronzey foil), and Every Month Is Oktoberfest from OPI's Germany collection (a pretty wine purple). I still need to find new riding boots for fall, but so far, nothing has struck my fancy.

-- In the realm of Stuff Adults Do, we steam cleaned the carpet. Ahhhh, stain-free carpet makes my inner Virgo VERY happy. It even got up a stubborn stain I've scrubbed many times. Very happy with the result.

-- TV Sunday: True Blood and Breaking Bad. Two of my favorite shows, but for completely different reasons. Anywho, while watching True Blood, I simultaneously heard millions of people scream "OMG IT'S BILLITH" at the same time. And a minute later, it was trending on twitter. Haha.

-- Today's plan: I have two pearl knotting assignments to do, I have to run the piece Verve is doing for the Inappropriate Hafla, and then I am curling up with a book. Maybe I'll finally get through the last 1/3 of Outlander.

-- Speaking of the Inappropriate Hafla... it's Sept 8th this year. I will be vending again, as will Minxes's Trinkets, Belle Nova, and Venus Out Of Bounds. If you're coming, bring $$$. There will be shinies to suit EVERYONE.

Oh Marvel. The whole series of pre-Avengers movies and The Avengers itself has swallowed me whole. I've always had sort of a thing for superhero stories, even if I was never hardcore into comics themselves-- mostly because awesome women can be slim pickins when it comes to the comics I grew up with, and partially because I am one of those people who, when entering a fandom, needs to know every last detail about the world's mythology and history. My obsessive need to know things can be exhausting at times. It's the Virgo in me.

As a tot, I was all about Rainbow Brite and She-Ra, then after I passed through my All Star Wars All The Time phase (trivia: I first dyed my hair red because I loved Tenel Ka so much I wanted to be her), I found Buffy, which may have actually saved my life in a slightly melodramatic, yet entirely truthful way.

( This is gonna get wordy. )

But then came Iron Man. It had a complete character in it. He was engaging and funny and so terribly imperfect, and he figured out the kind of man he wanted to be without it ever feeling stale or predictable. It didn't hurt that he looked like Robert Downey Jr. And there was also Pepper Potts-- calm, collected, competent Real Adult Pepper Potts-- who stood by him but didn't fall in love with him while he was acting like a self-absorbed jackass. She wasn't just the prize he got at the end of the movie for doing the right thing. He actually had to change. Nor was she the love interest who dies solely to motivate the hero. DOUBLE WIN.

( And lo, my love for the Marvel-verse was born. What follows is reasonably non-spoilery. )

In conclusion, I just wrote 2,300 words about why Marvel is eating my brain right now, and illustrated it with gifs from one single post on ONTD. I really should get to bed, as I need to be functional in the morning, and I'll edit this behemoth then. I just have so many FEELINGS.

I don't know how involved I'll be in the fandom-- it is INTENSE, yo. I mean, some of the people there can't tell the difference between actor and character (or indeed, the actor, who is an actual person, and their own personal fantasies) and it is making me side-eye in the fiercest of ways. I will probably fangirl from afar, where I can keep my dignity mostly intact.

But! I will leave you with one final gift. This lady does character analysis via wardrobe, and her thoughts are well worth reading. TA.

-- Just over 24 hours to use the coupon code SDFF2012 for 20% off your Sihaya Designs order!

-- MACARONS. I have discovered macarons, and I may be just the tiniest bit obsessed. I must taste ALL the flavors!

-- This just in: Joel Stein is a pretentious windbag. Memo to Mr. Stein: I read adult books. I read YA. I read fiction. I read non-fiction. I read literature. I read smut. I read wantonly. I read whatever I feel like reading. Please do fuck off.

-- So, I said I would write up my opinion of The Hunger Games, but then I got busy and that didn't happen. Overall, I liked it a lot! The things that they had to change for the adaptation to screen made total sense to me, and didn't take away from the story very much. Jennifer Lawrence was pretty great at conveying to the audience what was happening in Katniss's mind even though she didn't emote a whole lot, which was, of course, perfect for the character. The other standout to me was Josh Hutcherson as Peeta-- I will be the first to admit that I was a bit nervous about it, partially because he's, like, six inches shorter than J Law. But he was peeerrrrrfect, start to finish. Charismatic, funny, soulful. Woody was perfect. Lenny was perfect. Elizabeth was perfect. Stanley was perfect. Seneca Crane's beard was extra-perfect. It was kind of a perfect-palooza, and the reaping scene? Tears running down my face. The only casting I'm still not sold on is Liam Helmsworth as Gale. My reservations about the Seam's racial casting aside, he seems too jock-ish. Way too muscular. And frankly, way too low-key for a character that tends to have a powderkeg personality. Perhaps we'll see more of that in the movies to follow, but he was the only main character who wasn't quite right, imo.

I had very few criticisms of the film overall, my main one being ( Cut for spoilers. )

-- I've been watching Once Upon A Time with J. The show is hammy as all get out, but I have to say, I appreciate it for what it is. There are ladies on the show with positions of power, who talk to one another about things other than dudes. There are complicated relationships and friendships and all sorts of things that are woefully under-represented on tv. There's also some subversive stuff happening, which I really like-- I mean, nothing edgy or groundbreaking, but considering this is Disney we're talking about, I'm still pretty impressed. There's room for improvement, though-- there aren't nearly enough non-white people in Storybrooke, and quite frankly, I don't know if Disney's going to have a gay character on the show ever. But for right now? I'm enjoying the ride, and Robert Carlisle chewing all the scenery.

-- Tangentially related: Scottish accents are to women as beer goggles are to men. Discuss.

-- Been siiiiick. Typical spring cold, but the kind that makes it impossible to actually do the kind of work I do. Kind of hard to do detail work when my eyes are misted up and I'm dripping like a faucet. The upshot is that I got to spend most of yesterday on the couch with a book, which is a luxury I don't much get these days. Today I'm starting to feel mostly normal, despite a lingering swollen throat and constant sneezes. It's progress. I am probably going to get back to work after lunch.

-- Last weekend, I went down to DC to do some museum hopping. Saw the Slavery at Monticello exhibit in the American History museum, then hopped over to the Natural History museum for Written In Bone, the forensic special exhibit that uncovered how several early settlers to the Chesapeake region died. It was a really cool exhibit-- the first half was a modern forensics education, showing how we can tell sex, age, etc of skeletons, complete with several kinds of causes of death visible. The second half was several skeletons found in the Chesapeake during early settlement, and detailed how forensic anthropologists identified the skeletons that were often buried without markers. Very cool!

-- BPAL is making Labyrinth scents now! The first set were released last night, along with a Tanuki series. :)

( Spoilers for last night. )

Honorable mentions for The Most Annoying Thing About The Walking Dead award:

-- T Dogg. Not T Dogg himself, but basically how he is seriously fucked over in terms of the cast. He gets, on average, one line per episode. He might as well stand around and say "shit, daaaaaaaamn" or "that is whack," because he's basically a one-note token. Beth has gotten more screentime than T Dogg. It's racist as helllllllll. (Also, they're around Atlanta and he's the only black guy that survived? BULLSHIT.) This show needs to be re-named White People Problems With Occasional Glenn. I secretly hope Irone Singleton is just really busy being awesome somewhere, but considering how the writers treat basically everything else, that is probably just wishful thinking. I intend to try to call or write in to Talking Dead next week and ask (as they have asked one of my questions already this season!).

-- Lori. Again, more the writing. I understand her, and I like that they let her fuck up in more or less the same ways that, say, Rick does (dashing off into the fray). That said, last week when she went all Gender Stereotype Get In The Kitchen to Andrea? I wanted her off the planet. Part of the problem is that the writers are playing the women SO goddamn stereotypically that it's infuriating.

-- Shane. Look. Shane needs killin'. He's a loose canon who's proven that he will put the group in danger if he feels he's not being listened to (control issues ahoy). Andrea was bang on when she said his decision making is sound, but his execution is not okay. The problem with this show is that no one has any goddamn sense. Shane can make logical decisions but then his temper fucks the execution. Dale makes well-reasoned additions, but he's so annoying and preachy it's hard to take him seriously. There is a woeful lack of leadership on this show. Plus my pet peeve: Jon Bernthal's marble-mouthed acting. It has gotten stale to the point of mock-ability. Recipe for ShaneSpeak: mutter intently, look away and down to the side, shake head, mutter more, re-establish eye contact, raise voice while muttering, look down and away again. So. Freaking. Predictable. And to add to all of that? I will NEVER be a Shane fan for one simple reason. ( Spoilery for end of last season. )

Baaaaaasically, I watch this show for the effects makeup, because the writers are dropping the ball in a huge number of ways. The actors are doing okay-- Andrew Lincoln's southern accent is often hilarious (did he learn it by watching episodes of Deputy Dog? Inquiring minds want to know), but on the whole, they do create good tension, even with their reality show squabbles. If there could be more like the "two men walk into a bar" scene or the "walker horde on the highway" scene and less of "Andrea should be doing the laundry," it would be an exponentially better show.

So much squandered potential. Let's just kill most of the cast and have the Glenn, Maggie, and Daryl show, okay?

The Hunger Games again, since it's eating my brains.

Twenty-Four Victors, Twenty-Four Tributes: Meet Your Quarter Quell Contestants - aimmyarrowshigh

FLAWLESS VICTORY.

-- The Sick: The worst has passed. Once J got home from his trip, I went on Nyquil, which helped, except for the mild hallucinations. I was over about 70% of it by last night, but still ended up coughing all night long, awake and miserable. Gave in to Nyquil at around 4am. Still coughed a lot, but at least got to sleep.

-- Jason: likely has strep. His culture came back negative, but the doc said he might not be presenting yet, and put him on antibiotics, anyway. His voice is an octave lower than usual and sounds like it's been drug through gravel.

-- Snow: we got another foot last night. Cable and internet were out, power was flickering for awhile. 695 completely shut down with bumper to bumper traffic. Agnes called at around 8, about 100 yds from the Pikesville exit, to ask how far it was to our apartment. She'd been sitting still for 3 hours and was out of water and hadn't eaten since breakfast. Too far to walk, given known routes in blizzard conditions, that's for damn sure. But we can actually see our apartment from 695 very near the Pikesville exit, so we hatched the most brilliant / most stupid plan ever. ( Which was... )

Teevee: The Vampire Diaries is back tonight. Non-spoilers about the show: ( Thoughts. )

Also: IT CANNOT BE UNSEEN.



Paul Wesley looks more like Muppet!Angel than David Boreanaz does, fact.

-- Kitty pix! ( The latest from the furbeasts. )

-- Maryland Faerie Festival! I'll be heading down tomorrow night to volunteer all weekend. I will probably dance some, too! And the Gypsy's Monkey will be there, so I might get to score some gauzy, lightweight cholis in bright colors for outdoor festival wear.

-- Speaking of cholis, I have a few that I want to sell or trade.

1) One is a Flying Skirts drop shoulder long-sleeved choli-- a cotton one in a medium pink, size medium. The color is fuchsia, but it looks considerably less purply-pink in person. Never worn-- but I totally forgot to send it back for exchange (it was not the right shade of pink for me.) I mean I probably still could, but if anyone wants it or wants to trade, that works too!
2) Tribe Nawaar sheer lace choli in medium burgundy. Super pretty. Fit me across the bust but not in the shoulders.
3) Sharifwear PowerMesh Gypsy Top in black with gold base (click on the "more pictures" link for the gold option). It would look good for an indoor, night show, on a cabaret dancer, or in a fusion costume! Again, size medium. Bought at a festival-- when I tried it on at home, I deemed it insufficently tribal for me (as my costuming leans towards the more ATS end of the spectrum).

If you're interested in any of the above, send me an email! I am looking for cholis in size small (for all that I have D cups, only smalls fit me in the shoulders) or paypal. I'll take pics if you want!

-- TEEVEE! For one, The Tudors was really amazing this past week. They did the execution of Katherine Howard so so wonderfully. And the dancing juxtaposed with the violence? Stunning and poignant. United States of Tara has been, with one notable exception, completely boring this season. Lost disappointed THE HELL out of me this week, but I take solace in that there are only two episodes left and then this fuckery will be done. And The Vampire Diaries has its finale tonight, which will probably merit its very own post later, but suffice it to say-- after a rocky start, it is surprisingly good! Guilty pleasure tv at its finest.

Which is not a lot, honestly. I've had kind of a one track mind lately.

In any case, I am home from work today. Reason 1: husband was sick yesterday. Head-cold-y thing, mostly. And this morning I woke up with a fever and a huge headache. So. Not chancing anything. Reason 2: I take the morning shift for feeding the cats, which is generally 7am. Mim decided she was going to be more of a busybody that usual and dart under my feet while I was shuffling about the kitchen. I dodged her twice, but the third attempt sent me flying right into the wall to avoid stepping on her, so now I'm pretty sure I have a sprained toe. At the very least it's too tender to stand on all day today, and so I am icing it and will probably need to tape it during rehearsal Thursday.

In any case, the docket for today: snoozing some more, taking a cool bath and catching up on Caprica, and then watching the Bollywood flick marinatempest lent me but I've been too busy to watch.

Oh! And! I know that I was talking up Spartacus as not good, but compulsively watchable (if you have a high threshold for all things gratuitous). After the last two episodes, I am considerably less pleased with the show, to the point where I pondered stopping watching because two of the things that I really liked about it sadly went the way of predictable TV tropes and lazy writing. In any case, there's a hilarious (and also totally NSFW) primer for the show up at hradzka's journal. Also a spoilerific write-up that hits the nail on the head of exactly why I hated eps 6 & 7 so much.