Reading, Watching
Jan. 5th, 2019 08:48 am1. I finished The Deathly Hallows! ( my reaction )
2. Gotham is back!! ( spoilers )
3. We watched a great little indie movie called Life after Beth. It's a take on the zombie apocalypse with a great cast; very funny with lots of good pathos. It's not scary at all (or else I couldn't have watched it LOL). It's also an hour and half long which is a huge selling point for me; I lament the loss of the hour and a half movie. You can't watch a three hour movie on a week night after the kids are in bed and still get to sleep at a decent hour.
4.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
executrix send me an awesome batch of books. I am enjoying going through them.
Infra-Apparel by Richard Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Beautiful pictures of clothing in which the underwear or under-layers of clothing are either exposed or come to influence the outerwear or outer-layers.
I think the text is unnecessarily fussy and obfuscating at times, but it's still fascinating if you are interested in fashion.
View all my reviews
2. Gotham is back!! ( spoilers )
3. We watched a great little indie movie called Life after Beth. It's a take on the zombie apocalypse with a great cast; very funny with lots of good pathos. It's not scary at all (or else I couldn't have watched it LOL). It's also an hour and half long which is a huge selling point for me; I lament the loss of the hour and a half movie. You can't watch a three hour movie on a week night after the kids are in bed and still get to sleep at a decent hour.
4.
executrix send me an awesome batch of books. I am enjoying going through them.Infra-Apparel by Richard MartinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Beautiful pictures of clothing in which the underwear or under-layers of clothing are either exposed or come to influence the outerwear or outer-layers.
I think the text is unnecessarily fussy and obfuscating at times, but it's still fascinating if you are interested in fashion.
View all my reviews
Reading, reading, reading
Jan. 1st, 2019 09:13 pm1. I read 107 books last year, 7 over my goal.
2. I finished Half Blood Prince on New Year's Eve just under the wire. ( my reaction )
3. ( Uhura's Song )
4. ( We Have Always Lived in the Castle )
2. I finished Half Blood Prince on New Year's Eve just under the wire. ( my reaction )
3. ( Uhura's Song )
4. ( We Have Always Lived in the Castle )
Reading stuff!
Dec. 30th, 2018 12:25 pm1. ( Gluten Free Cookbook )
2. I just finished Order of the Phoenix. ( lots of thoughts )
3. Have some more Yuletide:
Deadwood
Never Call Retreat
Deadwood
Alma Garrett/Al Swearengen
If you read nothing else from the collection this year, you should read this fic. Whoever wrote it has the voices down exactly; I can hear each of the characters in my head as I read along. This is funny, and no matter what you may think of the pairing, 100% in keeping with the spirit and characterization of the show.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Someone Else's Music
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Basil/Dorian, Henry/Dorian
Oh my, the Victorianists had such a good Yuletide this year. This fic is exquisite, lush and beautiful and grotesque and achingly, gloriously horrible--in short, all the attributes of the novel.
2. I just finished Order of the Phoenix. ( lots of thoughts )
3. Have some more Yuletide:
Deadwood
Never Call Retreat
Deadwood
Alma Garrett/Al Swearengen
If you read nothing else from the collection this year, you should read this fic. Whoever wrote it has the voices down exactly; I can hear each of the characters in my head as I read along. This is funny, and no matter what you may think of the pairing, 100% in keeping with the spirit and characterization of the show.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Someone Else's Music
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Basil/Dorian, Henry/Dorian
Oh my, the Victorianists had such a good Yuletide this year. This fic is exquisite, lush and beautiful and grotesque and achingly, gloriously horrible--in short, all the attributes of the novel.
See y'all on the flipside!
Dec. 21st, 2018 08:15 pm1. We're starting our Christmas travels tomorrow. I'll be reading but probably not commenting or posting much if at all. I hope you all have a lovely week.
2. I got Christmas cards fromtalitha78, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
decynthus, and monanotlisa!
3. I finished Goblet of Fire. I was slightly wrong about Fake!Moody; he did give Neville that book in the hopes that he'd share the gillyweed info with Harry. When Neville didn't, then Fake!Moody had to contrive for Dobby to overhear him talking about it. I still stand by my argument that his conversation with Neville helps Neville start transforming into a badass.
I spent the last fifty pages or so crying. I had forgotten how traumatic and dramatic and OMG that scene in the graveyard is. :( I enjoy the first three books, but this one is the one that first grabs my heart. The quality just leaps forward in this novel.
4. Last of the meme:
china_shop: When you fan, do you feel like your primary relationship is with the fandom or the canon? How do those relationships interact with each other?
When I had the luxury of being really active in fandom (during grad school), it was with both. I was posting a ton of fic that addressed my interests/concerns with the canon, and I was posting meta and making recs and being a mod and having lots of conversations with lots of people in lots of different places about canon. I don't think I will ever enjoy myself online as much as I did in those halcyon days. *wistful*
As my online presence has diminished, especially the amount of fic I write (a year in which I post more than three fics is a good one now), it's mostly with canon and mostly consists of reading fic. Like, I still read a ton of Harry Potter fanfic, but other than leaving kudos on it, I'm not really engaging with the fandom at large at all.
archersangel asks: your dream christmas scenario. if money was no object, what decorations, food & gifts (maybe outfits for the family) would you have?
I'm afraid this answer is going to be just as disappointing as my cats answer.
In my heart of hearts, what I really want for Christmas is to stay home and not travel and for family to not come visit us. I would like to do a modest amount of decorating: live tree on back porch with lights, stockings on the mantel, maybe a wreath on the door. I would like to spend some part of every day working (on academic/personal projects) and go to the gym every day. I'd like to make goodies with the kids and watch old Christmas movies.
I'd like to have friends come over for meals a few times and be super fancy and use all my dishes and silver and glassware and table linens.
I always hate Christmas because I lose momentum on everything. I always have so much work to do, and while I try to work at our parents' houses, it's just not very successful. I can do some reading and note taking and etc, but it's just not a practical environment to get a lot of work done (interruptions, no access to my files, can't bring my whole library). I can't go to the gym, so I'm stuck walking or having dance party in my bedroom; in the summer, I can swim, so it's no biggie. But Christmas sucks for exercising especially if it's really too cold or rainy to be out much.
I have really severe anxiety, and two of the ways I manage that are by being productive and by exercising, and they both go out the window when we lose a week of our vacation to travelling. This Christmas it is especially acute because I have an enormous project looming over me as well as other work stuff that I still need to put a lot of work into.
Next year we're supposed to go to Josh's parents, and I'm going to ask if we can bow out that one year. They will understand more than my parents will.
2. I got Christmas cards from
talitha78, decynthus, and monanotlisa!3. I finished Goblet of Fire. I was slightly wrong about Fake!Moody; he did give Neville that book in the hopes that he'd share the gillyweed info with Harry. When Neville didn't, then Fake!Moody had to contrive for Dobby to overhear him talking about it. I still stand by my argument that his conversation with Neville helps Neville start transforming into a badass.
I spent the last fifty pages or so crying. I had forgotten how traumatic and dramatic and OMG that scene in the graveyard is. :( I enjoy the first three books, but this one is the one that first grabs my heart. The quality just leaps forward in this novel.
4. Last of the meme:
china_shop: When you fan, do you feel like your primary relationship is with the fandom or the canon? How do those relationships interact with each other?When I had the luxury of being really active in fandom (during grad school), it was with both. I was posting a ton of fic that addressed my interests/concerns with the canon, and I was posting meta and making recs and being a mod and having lots of conversations with lots of people in lots of different places about canon. I don't think I will ever enjoy myself online as much as I did in those halcyon days. *wistful*
As my online presence has diminished, especially the amount of fic I write (a year in which I post more than three fics is a good one now), it's mostly with canon and mostly consists of reading fic. Like, I still read a ton of Harry Potter fanfic, but other than leaving kudos on it, I'm not really engaging with the fandom at large at all.
archersangel asks: your dream christmas scenario. if money was no object, what decorations, food & gifts (maybe outfits for the family) would you have?I'm afraid this answer is going to be just as disappointing as my cats answer.
In my heart of hearts, what I really want for Christmas is to stay home and not travel and for family to not come visit us. I would like to do a modest amount of decorating: live tree on back porch with lights, stockings on the mantel, maybe a wreath on the door. I would like to spend some part of every day working (on academic/personal projects) and go to the gym every day. I'd like to make goodies with the kids and watch old Christmas movies.
I'd like to have friends come over for meals a few times and be super fancy and use all my dishes and silver and glassware and table linens.
I always hate Christmas because I lose momentum on everything. I always have so much work to do, and while I try to work at our parents' houses, it's just not very successful. I can do some reading and note taking and etc, but it's just not a practical environment to get a lot of work done (interruptions, no access to my files, can't bring my whole library). I can't go to the gym, so I'm stuck walking or having dance party in my bedroom; in the summer, I can swim, so it's no biggie. But Christmas sucks for exercising especially if it's really too cold or rainy to be out much.
I have really severe anxiety, and two of the ways I manage that are by being productive and by exercising, and they both go out the window when we lose a week of our vacation to travelling. This Christmas it is especially acute because I have an enormous project looming over me as well as other work stuff that I still need to put a lot of work into.
Next year we're supposed to go to Josh's parents, and I'm going to ask if we can bow out that one year. They will understand more than my parents will.
1. ( have some thoughts about Hamlet )
2. I got a Christmas card fromspikedluv!
3. We just watched the episode where Twilight Sparkle becomes a princess, and OMG, y'all, I have an inordinate amount of feels about this show. Fiona just kept going, "Yeah! She's a princess!" and "Wow, that's so cool, Mom!" And then in the following episode, Twilight's newfound princess skills are put to the test, and hand-to-god, my friends, I started crying because the episode made it look like Princess Luna was betraying Princess Celestia again, and all I could think was how much that was going to hurt Celestia who was so happy to have her sister back in her life. (Spoiler alert: it was not Princess Luna, hooray!)
4. I'm about a fourth of the way through Goblet of Fire, and it is so good!
( SPOILERS )
2. I got a Christmas card from
spikedluv!3. We just watched the episode where Twilight Sparkle becomes a princess, and OMG, y'all, I have an inordinate amount of feels about this show. Fiona just kept going, "Yeah! She's a princess!" and "Wow, that's so cool, Mom!" And then in the following episode, Twilight's newfound princess skills are put to the test, and hand-to-god, my friends, I started crying because the episode made it look like Princess Luna was betraying Princess Celestia again, and all I could think was how much that was going to hurt Celestia who was so happy to have her sister back in her life. (Spoiler alert: it was not Princess Luna, hooray!)
4. I'm about a fourth of the way through Goblet of Fire, and it is so good!
( SPOILERS )
Four for Friday
Dec. 14th, 2018 07:45 pm1. I have concluded my Yuletide contributions: main assignment + 2 treats!
2. The HP reread inspired me to rewatch some favorite vids:
The Adventure by Greensilver; Neville-centric
Marching On by dazzleme7; ensemble
3. A Million Light Years from Home bymusesfool; HP; gen
Sirius falls through the Veil and into the world of Firefly (and it's as perfect as that sounds).
4. I finished Prisoner of Azkaban. ( Some thoughts )
2. The HP reread inspired me to rewatch some favorite vids:
The Adventure by Greensilver; Neville-centric
Marching On by dazzleme7; ensemble
3. A Million Light Years from Home by
musesfool; HP; genSirius falls through the Veil and into the world of Firefly (and it's as perfect as that sounds).
4. I finished Prisoner of Azkaban. ( Some thoughts )
Harry Potter books reread
Dec. 13th, 2018 06:45 pmI finished the second Harry Potter book today. I like Chamber of Secrets much more on this reread than I did before. I think it's the weakest movie, and I think that was coloring my memory of the book (although I liked the movie much more the last time I watched it as well, so I guess I'm just finding more to appreciate now).
I always wish we got some of the narration from Ginny's perspective because it's so scary and horrible. The books just drop the fact that she was possessed and forced to do really terrible things by Voldemort, and I think she would be traumatized for a very long time by that experience. I've read some good fanfic that deals with that, but it's not really addressed in the books at all (unless I've forgotten something).
I adore the Weasley twins walking down the halls proclaiming Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, make way, make way.
Malfoy is so much pettier and less clever than I remember him.
I love how Hermione goes whole hog into the rules breaking when something as horrific as the expulsion of Muggle-born from Hogwarts (and the wizarding world as a whole) is at stake.
I also had forgotten Malfoy's motive for giving the diary to Ginny (to have the daughter of Arthur Weasley, a pureblood on the side of light, responsible for killing Muggleborns). I also had forgotten that he didn't know the diary was a Horcrux and was just acting on his own without direction as far as giving it to her.
Very interested to see how I perceive Lupin when I start the third one.
I always wish we got some of the narration from Ginny's perspective because it's so scary and horrible. The books just drop the fact that she was possessed and forced to do really terrible things by Voldemort, and I think she would be traumatized for a very long time by that experience. I've read some good fanfic that deals with that, but it's not really addressed in the books at all (unless I've forgotten something).
I adore the Weasley twins walking down the halls proclaiming Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, make way, make way.
Malfoy is so much pettier and less clever than I remember him.
I love how Hermione goes whole hog into the rules breaking when something as horrific as the expulsion of Muggle-born from Hogwarts (and the wizarding world as a whole) is at stake.
I also had forgotten Malfoy's motive for giving the diary to Ginny (to have the daughter of Arthur Weasley, a pureblood on the side of light, responsible for killing Muggleborns). I also had forgotten that he didn't know the diary was a Horcrux and was just acting on his own without direction as far as giving it to her.
Very interested to see how I perceive Lupin when I start the third one.
December Talking Meme
Dec. 12th, 2018 08:55 pm1. Thanks for all your well wishes for Emma. I hope we get an appointment soon. I'm going to do my best to just put it out of my mind as there's nothing we can do until we get a diagnosis.
2. I'm a little more than halfway through the first HP book. I had forgotten that a good third of the book happens before Harry even gets to Hogwarts. I had also forgotten the way Harry is characterized. I've read so much fanfiction for HP in the last 11 years that it can be difficult to remember what's fanon and what's canon. Harry is definitely abused by the Dursleys (and I love fic that calls that abuse for what it is and explores how traumatic his childhood truly was), but he's not abused as extensively as I'd remembered. He also always stands up for himself; he's mouthy, he taunts Dudley and runs away, and he's never cowed. It's not that I had remembered him as mousy and frightened, but I had forgotten just how plucky Harry is even before Hogwarts, and I like it. I'm also really enjoying seeing all these plot and world building elements introduced in this first book that are going to be significant later: dragons guarding Gringotts, you say? how did the Baron get so bloody? etc. etc. Wow, Hermione is off-putting in this book; I had forgotten how bossy and sanctimonious she is. I'm trying to imagine ancient Jude Law singing "Hoggy, hoggy Hogwarts" and failing spectacularly. LOL
3.sjnt asks: Your favorite MLP friendship and why it is magic.
Oh, man. I just love this show. I think one of the things I love about it most is how it is always sending up pop culture. I feel like this show is made by a bunch of people my age who want their kids to grow up and love Die Hard. Like, there's been a Terminator episode and a Sherlock Holmes episode and a Lady GaGa episode and etc.
My favorite friendship is probably Rainbow Dash and her pet turtle. RD is my least favorite pony, but I adore that she falls in love with that slow poky turtle and chooses him for her BFF pet.
I also really like the Cutey Mark Crusaders and the way they always have each other's backs.
I love all the puns (the timber wolves are literally constructed of wood, for example).
I love the singing. I mean, I adore a musical anyway, so I'm down for some ponies breaking into song about HeartsWarming Eve. Frankly, I think there's a dearth of singing in cartoons right now outside of Bubble Guppies who routinely break into song. It's like cowbell. Could always use more.
2. I'm a little more than halfway through the first HP book. I had forgotten that a good third of the book happens before Harry even gets to Hogwarts. I had also forgotten the way Harry is characterized. I've read so much fanfiction for HP in the last 11 years that it can be difficult to remember what's fanon and what's canon. Harry is definitely abused by the Dursleys (and I love fic that calls that abuse for what it is and explores how traumatic his childhood truly was), but he's not abused as extensively as I'd remembered. He also always stands up for himself; he's mouthy, he taunts Dudley and runs away, and he's never cowed. It's not that I had remembered him as mousy and frightened, but I had forgotten just how plucky Harry is even before Hogwarts, and I like it. I'm also really enjoying seeing all these plot and world building elements introduced in this first book that are going to be significant later: dragons guarding Gringotts, you say? how did the Baron get so bloody? etc. etc. Wow, Hermione is off-putting in this book; I had forgotten how bossy and sanctimonious she is. I'm trying to imagine ancient Jude Law singing "Hoggy, hoggy Hogwarts" and failing spectacularly. LOL
3.
sjnt asks: Your favorite MLP friendship and why it is magic.Oh, man. I just love this show. I think one of the things I love about it most is how it is always sending up pop culture. I feel like this show is made by a bunch of people my age who want their kids to grow up and love Die Hard. Like, there's been a Terminator episode and a Sherlock Holmes episode and a Lady GaGa episode and etc.
My favorite friendship is probably Rainbow Dash and her pet turtle. RD is my least favorite pony, but I adore that she falls in love with that slow poky turtle and chooses him for her BFF pet.
I also really like the Cutey Mark Crusaders and the way they always have each other's backs.
I love all the puns (the timber wolves are literally constructed of wood, for example).
I love the singing. I mean, I adore a musical anyway, so I'm down for some ponies breaking into song about HeartsWarming Eve. Frankly, I think there's a dearth of singing in cartoons right now outside of Bubble Guppies who routinely break into song. It's like cowbell. Could always use more.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Sep. 4th, 2016 01:03 pmFriday, Midday Music on NPR was playing sci-fi and fantasy music in honor of Dragon Con, so I got to rock out to the Imperial March when I was heading to town to shop. :)
I took Emma shopping yesterday for more track clothes (she has finally reached the point where she really needs to wear a sports bra), and I bought us both Harry Potter and Cursed Child.
( I loved it! )
I know several of you read and reviewed it, but I can't remember who. Link me up?
I took Emma shopping yesterday for more track clothes (she has finally reached the point where she really needs to wear a sports bra), and I bought us both Harry Potter and Cursed Child.
( I loved it! )
I know several of you read and reviewed it, but I can't remember who. Link me up?
I just closed Deathly Hallows and replaced the dust cover (loathsome thing) and wiped my face off and poured me another glass of wine.
So, strap in, y'all. Lorraine has thoughts.
( Movies and books and shipping, oh my! )
So, strap in, y'all. Lorraine has thoughts.
( Movies and books and shipping, oh my! )
