tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861Lament Configuration ReduxBeing a functional adult every day seems a bit excessivesareini2024-01-07T21:57:38Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:620661Fandom Snowflake Challenge Day 42024-01-07T21:20:09Z2024-01-07T21:57:38ZReeve Carney - Think of Youembarrassedpublic2<b>Challenge #4<br /><br />IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.</b><br /><br />Oof. Something else I'm not the greatest at. But we'll give it a go anyway.<br /><br /> - I'm 44 years old (born in 1979) and so can no longer deny that I'm middle-aged.<br /><br /> - My pronouns are she/they; I'm bisexual, genderqueer-nonbinary and somewhere between demiromantic and greyromantic.<br /><br /> - I have lived all my life in the United Kingdom, although I spent every summer of my childhood in Ireland where my mother was from (my accent has been described as "I can't decide if I'm Irish today.")<br /><br /> - I originally studied Film Studies and Psychology at university, then Creative Writing several years later, and then several years after that I'm now doing a Law and Criminology degree with the Open University. I have not yet completed a single degree, but I'm in year 5 of 6 for the OU one, so...<br /><br /> - I'm barely 5 feet 3 inches and as a result can't even change lightbulbs in my own flat without help.<br /><br /> - I'm a Discordian, a Taoist and a servant of Bast.<br /><br /> - I have two cats: Callie, (full name Calliope Tulip Shodan) and Jareth (full name Jareth Glyndwr McGoohan). Jareth is actually female, but it took me ten months to figure this out so we just consider her the Gender-Non-Conforming Cat.<br /><br /> - My very first fandom was Transformers, when I was five; over the years I've also expanded into X-Men, horror films, Torchwood, Supernatural, Babylon 5, The Umbrella Academy, Loki, Penny Dreadful, The Old Guard, the Batfamily, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Baldur's Gate 3, however, is really the only fandom I've written for <b>and</b> published on the web (over the years I've written/composed in my head lots of stuff for some of the other fandoms, but it's highly unlikely any of that stuff will be seeing the light of day any time soon). Everything else I'm just a reader/watcher of.<br /><br /> - I am one of the world's slowest sock knitters, but I'm getting better at finishing things in the same... decade that I started them (I still owe my niece one purple sock from Christmas 2022). I also crochet and cross stitch, at much the same speed.<br /><br /> - I am terrified of needles, to the point of being listed as a fainting risk and needing assistance for blood tests and vaccinations. In school I once punched a nurse who tried to sneak up on me with a needle.<br /><br /> - I suffer from depression, anxiety and OCD, which means I don't leave the house very much. I'm also awaiting an in-person assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder.<br /><br /> - Some of my favourite films of all time include: <i>Versus</i>; <i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (1979 version); <i>Train to Busan</i>; <i>Battle Royale</i>; <i>Nightbreed</i>; and <i>What We Do In The Shadows</i><br /><br /> - My favourite colours are blue and purple.<br /><br /> - As a teenager, I was honestly convinced that ankle boots, fishnet stockings, tartan hot pants, a leotard/bodysuit and a black gauzy shirt that tied at the front made me look like an adult.<br /><br /> - I saw <i>Transformers: the Movie</i> in the cinema the year it came out, and witnessed the end of many childhoods, between the death of Optimus Prime and the massacre on the Autobot shuttle. That was an experience for six-year-old me.<br /><br /> - I handwrite my first drafts of everything, with a dotted journal and a fountain pen because otherwise I cannot focus.<br /><br /><a href="http://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lPhDeM2.jpg" alt="Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake and ornaments. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31." width="300"></a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=620661" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:590493RIP Lovefilm2017-08-14T13:09:20Z2017-08-14T13:09:41ZGuns N' Roses - Rocket Queenhungrypublic0<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40925062">Lovefilm by Post DVD rental service to close</a>.<br /><br />This rather sucks. Yes, things are very different from when Lovefilm started a decade or so ago and there are a ton of streaming services now for people to choose from... but Lovefilm's selection was <b>huge</b>, and even with Shudder, Amazon Prime and Netflix combined I wouldn't have anything near the selection of films that Lovefilm had (we're not mentioning Kodi here because of the legal grey area). And I'm not the only one to point out the vast difference in available titles either. Maybe Amazon will listen and be able to make more titles available for streaming, so people won't have to resort to... other sources for films.<br /><br />***<br /><br />In other news I've started on season 2 of <i>Legends of Tomorrow</i> and after two episodes I'm still happily hooked - thus breaking the season 2 curse I've been labouring under lately. Nick would have been all but peeing himself with glee, of course, as we've now got the Justice Society of America which Nick was a total fanboy for. Any questions I might have had about them (such as which was Obsidian and which was Dr Mid-Nite, because they had such similar powersets that I got a bit confused) would have been answered in great detail rather than my having to go to Wikipedia to look things up. The rest of the Legends are still awesome as well - I still miss Captain Cold, but because it's near-impossible to avoid spoilers sometimes I'm aware that isn't a lasting condition - and I <b>love</b> that Sara Lance gets to be a bisexual with an active sex life with both men <b>and</b> women. There's not nearly enough of that in movies and TV.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=590493" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:586419Cats and Posters2017-07-14T22:14:19Z2017-07-14T22:14:19ZBill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - (I've Had) The Time of my Lifeamusedpublic2Last night, Callie had a Mad Half-Hour (which turned into a Mad Two Hours - Lily climbed into her cardboard box, pulled the lid over herself and stayed there for the duration) and during her extended Zoomies she decided that the <i>Suicide Squad</i> poster in the front room had to go.<br /><br />To be fair, it's partially my fault. I put the cat tree right next to it, within easy reach of over-excited kittens.<br /><br />She shredded Slipknot and took half of the Joker's face off (ironic, really), before grabbing the piece of poster that she'd removed, squeaking excitedly, and running out of the room with it. I found her later crouched over it like a fresh kill, utterly pleased with herself. I suppose when you're a 100% indoor kitty you have to hunt what you can.<br /><br />But the event did remind me that I've wanted to put more posters and pictures up in the house for some time - I've just been delayed by forgetting repeatedly and by the cost of a lot of posters. When I finally finish things like the Horror Movie Maniacs cross stitch and do other stuff for myself I'll be putting them up, of course, but that could take some time with the way I work on things and the randomness of my depressive apathy attacks. So that leaves posters in the interim, but they're (a) difficult to find the ones I'd like; and (b) usually very expensive.<br /><br />I got lucky today though, and found an internet place with a "Today only!" 40% sale going on, and so bought myself a couple of posters. If I had infinite money, I'd have gotten <a href="http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/American-Psycho-Watercolor-Posters_i14299965_.htm?PODConfigID=9201947">this</a> or <a href="http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Evil-Dead-Watercolor-Posters_i14300021_.htm">this</a>, but the cost to get a decent-sized one, even unframed, was too much for me right now. So I got a couple of more qaffordable posters, and when they arrive I shall stick them to the wall with BluTac or whatever else I can find, and hopefully they'll be in places where certain cats can't reach them.<br /><br />(Callie appears to have decided just now that tonight Captain Boomerang must fall, while she finishes off the Joker. Maybe I should get her a Catwoman poster.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=586419" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:584875Peter Parker and Jesse Custer2017-07-10T17:02:50Z2017-07-10T17:02:50ZRick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Upcynicalpublic0My brother came down to visit and we went to see <i>Spiderman: Homecoming</i>.<br /><br />Non-spoiler thoughts: Very good film. Funny in all the right places, with a good-action-to-real life ratio. Michael Keaton is really good as the Vulture - far better, I think, than some of the previous over-the-top villains we've had in previous Spider-Man films.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://sareini.dreamwidth.org/584875.html#cutid1">Spider-Spoilers!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br type="_moz" /><br /><br />Last night I also watched up to the end of episode 4 of season One of <i>Preacher</i>, which I'd been meaning to do for some time but I'm easily distracted. I decided to make a go of catching up on everything because I'd been talking with my brother about it on the phone last night, and how much it was different to the graphic novels. Well, I'd already known some of the differences, but I hadn't known how far they went...<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://sareini.dreamwidth.org/584875.html#cutid2">Spoilers for the first four episodes of season One of Preacher</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br type="_moz" /><br /><br />So yeah. I'm going to keep watching <i>Preacher</i>, despite my complaints, because apparently Season Two starts following the books more, and what I've seen so far of the Saint of Killers, Fiore and Leblanc, and Herr Starr (all 30 seconds of him) give me hope that there's still good stuff in there waiting to come out. But I just do not get the reasons for such massive changes to backstories, especially when the changes actually feel<b> weaker</b>, plotwise.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=584875" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:577059Wonder Woman Vs Reality2017-06-04T21:46:59Z2017-06-04T21:46:59Zsadpublic0I was at the cinema yesterday with my friend Ross, for our Nick Whitehouse Memorial Moviewatching Day. (we normally hold it at my house, but Ross didn't feel well enough for pizza or a late night so we hit the cinema instead.) We saw <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</i> (second time for me) and <i>Wonder Woman</i> (first time for both of us).<br /><br />So you can safely count me among the throng who thought <i>Wonder Woman</i> was really, really, really good. In keeping with my usual pop culture descriptions of movies: Diana of Themyscira teams up with Captain Kirk, Gomez Addams in a fez, a Native American and No True Scotsman (you'll understand that when you see the film) to fight the Axeman of New Orleans (I spent most of the film staring at him and questioning whether he was Walter Bishop from <i>Fringe</i> or not, but no, I knew him from <i>American Horror Story</i>). I really enjoyed the way the film managed to surprise me and subvert my expectations on more than one occasion, thus making it considerably better and more original than the majority of films out there right now (and never mind superhero films). It also did a good job of reminding us about the fact that war is nasty, horrible stuff, rather than the great and noble enterprise that many other war films (or films that feature wars) tend to do.<br /><br />When I woke up this morning and saw the news of yet another bunch of shitgibbons in London who thought that the best way to get on the ins with their god was to go on a rampage, I was left feeling both very tired and depressed. Seeing all of this endless hatred on both sides, each trying to one-up the other it seems, does my mental state no good whatsoever, because I just can't understand how twisted up all these people are. For most of my life I've constructed elaborate fantasy worlds to retreat to whenever bored, distressed, scared or for any other reason (At one point my mother sent me to a child psychologist because she was deeply concerned that I was spending more time in my imagination than in the "real world", which didn't go well at all, but that's another story). It's on days like this that I want to go back to those worlds, because the "real world" is just too depressing and bad nowadays. At least in the worlds of superheroes, you can still have hope that there's someone out there who can save the day.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=577059" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:573194On Hailing Hydra2017-05-18T10:43:02Z2017-05-18T10:43:02ZSpectre General - Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Waycontemplativepublic0I've been ruminating a bit over the last few days over the current Marvel comics event, <i>Secret Empire</i>. For those of you not in the know, Steve Rogers, Captain America, was old for a while then got returned to his youthful self by the/a Cosmic Cube, which was in the form of a little girl called Kobik. Unfortunately, when Kobik de-aged Cap, she also re-wrote part of his history because of manipulation by the Red Skull, making him into the perfect Hydra sleeper agent. Several in-continuity months later, Hydra puts their plan into action and takes over the United States with Captain America, thoroughly believing that Hydra is what's best for the country, in charge. The majority of heroes get locked outside the planet by a defense shield, New York gets put into a Darkforce Dimension bubble and cut off from everything, mutants get "relocated" to a new country and Inhumans get put into camps. Oh, and there are public executions and Las Vegas gets bombed into the ground for harbouring a resistance movement. Fun stuff all round.<br /><br />The reason I've been thinking about this lately is not just because I've been following the story, but because I've been wondering what Nick would have thought of all this. Those of you who knew Nick know that he created his "Benevolent Dictator for Life" idea, and his cynicism (and depression) led him to believe that humanity couldn't be trusted to govern itself, so someone should step in to do it for them, for their own good. He'd also jokingly "Hail Hydra" sometimes. So I'm wondering how he would have reacted to <i>Secret Empire</i>.<br /><br />Short answer: I think he'd have hated it.<br /><br />Long answer: Oh boy, where to begin. First off, I think Nick would have empathised with the over-written Captain America - he's clearly supposed to be thinking this is the best for everyone, that Hydra really will help Make America Great Again (hah). The problem is - and this is most likely down to bad writing - that Cap's actions don't always mesh with the fact that he's still supposed to be trying to do the right thing. Look at the things I listed above, to begin with. Concentration camps? Public executions? Bombing a city into rubble and killing thousands of innocent civilians <b>just to send a message</b>? There is no way that Captain America can still be thought of as "trying to do the right thing" when he's taking part in any of those actions. I don't think even Doctor Doom in his villainous prime went so far as to have concentration camps, and yet here we have Steve Rogers going along with this like it isn't a big deal at all. The man fought in WW2! (There was a page from a 90s X-Men/Avengers crossover event called <i>Bloodties</i> that I wanted to put here to illustrate the point - it takes place on Genosha where the mutate population have been put into camps to "protect" them from the Legacy virus that was ravaging the country, and when Captain America finds one such camp he is... less than happy - but I can't find a scan of it anywhere and I don't know where my own copy is, so just take my word for it.)<br /><br />So we have <b>those</b> problems with the whole thing. Then we have the way Hydra is keeping control of the US now that they have it. Propaganda and information blackouts are one thing, but they're also putting mind control agents in the water and encouraging people - including children - to inform on anyone they think is harbouring "anti-Hydra" thoughts. And if they catch you... well, it seems all you have to do to stop the torture/execution is to "Hail Hydra", and again, how the hell can Captain America still be thought of as in any way "good" or still heroic if he's going along with this? He kills two of his friends because of this! In panels where they discuss these things he looks more annoyed by the bureaucracy than anything else.<br /><br />It seems that Marvel might be starting to realise that they've written themselves into a corner with their portrayal of Captain America now, as the end of #2 of <i>Secret Empire</i> seems to be setting up a "good Steve/bad Steve" situation, but certainly right now they can't go on trying to make Captain America be all, "It's all for the best! No really, my murderous brainwashing Hydra allies aren't bad!" without completely destroying the character forevermore.<br /><br />So in conclusion: no, Nick would not have been agreeing with Steve Rogers and Hydra on this. At all.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=573194" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:571417Judge Dredd TV series2017-05-10T20:21:16Z2017-05-10T20:21:16ZBelinda Carlisle - Heaven is a Place on Earthcuriouspublic0<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39873020">Well this sounds interesting.</a><br /><br />I know Karl Urban had expressed interest in playing Dredd in a TV series, but whether or not that could actually happen is another thing entirely. It will also be very interesting to see what stories and characters they end up bringing into the TV series - the Angel Gang are probably a shoe-in, especially Mean Machine just because he's iconic without being too difficult to adapt; Rico Dredd too. On the other hand, I can see them wanting to do things like the Dark Judges and Judge Caligula, but those might be a bit too big/dark/close to the bone in places.<br /><br />We shall have to see.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=571417" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:569275Random Sunday Thoughts2017-04-30T18:23:06Z2017-04-30T18:23:06ZJamiroquai - Deeper Undergroundthoughtfulpublic0I've been tired all weekend and I'm not really sure why. Either I've been sleeping badly and not noticing (I'm one of those people who sometimes dreams of not being able to fall asleep, thus completely confusing the fuck out of my already addled brain and leaving me exhausted in the morning), or Friday's cinema trip was more emotionally draining than I realised (it was a pretty busy screening for 1pm on a Friday). Either way I've spent a fair amount of time in bed, doing very little and/or dozing.<br /><br />***<br /><br />One thing I did do yesterday was watch a horror movie called <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5068650/">The Dark Tapes</a></i>, a found-footage anthology movie that felt to me like it was trying to fill the void left by the <i>V/H/S</i> series. Apparently it's been winning awards on the festival circuit and getting good reviews in lots of places... which makes me feel slightly guilty that I really didn't like it.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://sareini.dreamwidth.org/569275.html#cutid1">Probably some spoilers here</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br type="_moz" /><br /><br />***<br /><br />Despite knowing better, I continue to play League of Legends on weekends. At this point I think I deserve every bad game I get just because I won't follow my own advice and not play. There is little more frustrating than going 4/0/1 in your lane making sure your lane opponent can do very little but lament his choices in life, then have your team come mid and feed him kill after kill so that he ends up carrying his team to victory.<br /><br />***<br /><br />I am vaguely toying with the idea of some <i>Loki: Agent of Asgard</i> fic stuff. It's kind of nibbling at me right now. We shall see.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=569275" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:568626GotG Vol. 22017-04-28T15:58:30Z2017-04-28T15:58:30ZTyler Bates - Starhawkcheerfulpublic0My brother came down for a visit today and we went to see <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</i> (yeah, it's a rare occasion where the UK gets a big film release early).<br /><br /><u>Non-spoiler thoughts:</u><br /><br />What a fun film that was! I certainly thought it was as good and as funny as the first one, possibly even better in places. It filled in backgrounds for several characters (Yondu, or Blue Merle as I call him whenever I forget his name - hey, it's better than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry:_Portrait_of_a_Serial_Killer">Blue Henry Lee Lucas</a> - being the primary recipient there), as well as managing to introduce new characters and continue the arcs of established characters without leaving anyone with a thin edge of story wedge. It's also got the regular Stan Lee cameo - and it's one that really quite fits him - and a couple of others as well (Sylvester Stallone and Miley Cyrus among others). And Baby Groot is adorable.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://sareini.dreamwidth.org/568626.html#cutid1">Spoiler Thoughts. BIG spoilers. Read at your own risk</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br type="_moz" /><br /><br />Trailer-wise, I was personally just glad I didn't have to see yet another <i>Fate of the Furious</i> trailer. Instead, we got <i>Baby Driver</i>, <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> and <i>Wonder Woman</i>. Oh, and <i>Transformers: The Last Knight</i>, wherein Optimus Prime appears to have gone and lost his marbles, and things explode, because Michael Bay.<br /><br />So all in all, it's been a good day.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=568626" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-09-22:447861:633Your Fangirl Moment For Today2009-09-23T10:46:37Z2009-09-26T22:10:34Zbouncypublic0<span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://sareini.dreamwidth.org/633.html#cutid1">Large picture behind cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />...yeah. It was already hard enough waiting for November when the first issue of this mini comes out. Waiting for December's going to be even worse now.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=sareini&ditemid=633" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments